Rammstein
Being one of the most spectacular, famous, and outrageous “heavy” bands of the German stage, Rammstein began its way to glory from the young bands’ contest, the main prize of which was the right to the professional studio record. After performing a list of songs, including a famous track “Du Riechst So Gut”, Rammstein won the contest. In February 1994, they laid a foundation of the future world success of the group of German “industrial men”.
By the moment of the fatal performance, all members of the band had already become experienced artists, who played in different groups before. The singers’ main genres were punk-rock and hard rock, though Richard Kruspe, a founder, leader, and guitarist of the band, focused on Industrial Metal, and did not fail. The band’s peculiarity is that almost all texts, written by Till Lindemann, are performed in German that did not influence Rammstein’s wining the hearts of English listeners.
Rammstein released the debut album Herzeleid in 1995 and embarked on a tour in Europe as a warm-up band. All performances of the band were accompanied by effective light and pyrotechny shows that played its role in promotion of the first album. A year later, Rammstein released the second album Sehnsucht and appeared on MTV. In several months, the band’s members and fans became to talk, still carefully, about the world popularity.
Despite a fast rise, the band’s next album was released at a distant date that made fans of Rammstein worry. There were some rumours that the group disbanded or going to disband but, fortunately, they were wrong. With coming of a new millennium, Rammstein came back to the studio and recorded the third album titled Mutter, which became the most unusual and talented album of the band. The guys made not less original and famous videoclips to a number of songs from this album.
Enjoying the beams of popularity, Rammstein recorded several new singles and the German singers celebrated their decennary with the DVD record of the full compilation of vidoclips and some records from the concerts. In 2004, they released a new album Reise, Reise, which became platinum in a week after its release.
Then the group made a three year break, during which Rammstein toured, gave concerts, and made videoclips. The band’s next album was released only in autumn 2009. The album’s first single “Pussy” became sensational not due to its contents but its videoclip, in which a viewer watched hot pornographic scenes with the members of the band (but they were stand-ins). That was not the last scandal related to the album’s release. A single “Ich tu dir weh” was criticized as it promoted violence and tempted to sadomasochism. Accusations of spreading the Third Reich ideology accompanied every appearance of Rammstein in public.
Nevertheless, Rammstein became an iconic band for many fans of “heavy” music. Denying any accusations of maintaining fascism and nationalism, the band’s members kept on supporting their image and became striking and memorable world phenomenon. Rammstein’s style and behavior of its members were called provocative, outrageous, and even unacceptable for the civil society. However, one must admit that the band contributed greatly to development of the mentioned music direction that was highly appreciated by critics and fans.
