Rammstein - Rosenrot

*=Staff's pick	Benzin Mann Gegen Mann* Rosenrot* Spring* Wo Bist Du Stirb Nicht Vor Mir (Don't Die Before I Do) Zerstören* Hilf Mir* Te Quiero Puta! Feuer Und Wasser* Ein Lied

Genre	Industrial Metal	Till Lindeman	Vocals
Tracks	11	Richard Z. K.-Bernstein	Guitar
Runningtime	48 Min.	Paul H. Landers	Guitar
Label	Universal Records	Oliver Riedel	Bass
Release	28 Oct. 2005	Cristoph Schneider	Drums
Country	Germany	Christian Lorenz	Keyboards
Similar artists	---

Many of us were quite surprised when Rammstein announced that a new album was due this fall, since the German metal-squadron have made a habit of keeping the fans waiting 3-4 years between each new release. After all, it was only last year that Reise, Reise climbed the charts all over the world, right? Ready or not, here comes Rosenrot, or as the album was called at one point; Reise, Reise Vol. 2.

The explanation to this is that Rosenrot mostly consists of material that didn't make it onto the previous record. For example, the title track was originally meant to be the first single off Reise, Reise, before the band for reasons unknown decided to pull it out of the album entirely. Even though many of the tracks are at most one year old, Rosenrot at times sounds like a bunch of songs that the band has piled up during their career. For example, "Zerstören" has the same kind of almost mechanical riffs that were so prominent on their breakthrough-album Sehnsucht.

But to the most extent, Rosenrot develops on the sound that made Reise, Reise so successful. Many of the compositions have the same organic, almost symphonic, approach. The greatest example is the fabulous track "Spring", which has the same cold atmosphere like the album cover, showing an enormous ship that is stuck in the ice somewhere on the Arctic landscape.

Rammstein have always been great at creating controversy around their songs, even before they've been released. Reise, Reise had "Mein Teil" and "Amerika", while Rosenrot's reply comes in the form of "Mann Gegen Mann" and "Te Quiero Puta!". The former is, contrary to what many people believe, a statement by Till Lindemann how much he admires homosexuals. The track has a very strong chorus, making it a good choice for the second single. "Te Quiero Puta!" is a mariachi-influenced story sung entirely in Spanish. Reise, Reise hinted that Rammstein were willing to experiment with the language barrier, with the songs "Amerika" (partially sung in English) and "Moskau" (Russian).

Another song that will make all Rammstein-fans raise their eyebrows is "Stirb Nicht Von Mir (Don't Die Before I Do)", which is a duet between Lindemann and Sharleen Spiteri from the Scottish rock band Texas. The decision to include Spiteri was most likely made by Rammstein's record label Universal Records (which houses Texas, who also released a new album recently…). It's a beautiful ballad with a touch of goth to it, but apparently some of the band members disliked the idea of involving the English language into the track. They felt that the original, which was sung by a German girl, was better as a whole, and hopefully the original version of "Stirb Nicht Vor Mir" will be made available to the fans sometime in the future.

The diversity of Rosenrot is its biggest strength, and also what makes it one of the best albums of 2005 . As well as the above mentioned tracks, the album contains an extremely gothic track called "Wo Bist Du", which is definitely in the vein of Paradise Lost. Another standout track is "Ein Lied", a ballad that is very low-key and all the better for it. As you know, these guys aren't exactly known to be following the proverb "less is more". All in all, Rosenrot has something that every Rammstein-fan can enjoy.

See also review of: Liebe Ist Für Alle Da , Benzin , Reise Reise , Mein Teil , Live Aus Berlin

Production	Vocals	Compositions
9	9	9

Summary
9,5 chalices of 10 - Niklas

Sure, it is as usual very mighty and powerful and this time almost epic, but with hardly any memorable refrains and basically no memorable riffs it falls very flat and this is Rammsteins' least good album so far. It is only Mann Gegen Mann that really works, and to some extent also Spring and Rosenrot but neither of them really make you go overboard with joy. Te Quiero Puta could also have been mentioned in that context if the refrain had not ruined it all. The rest of the tracks are forming an unusual gray mess of medicore riffs in midtempo. This ends up somewhere in the zone between "naaahh" and "oh, well" for me.//Tommy (5,5 of 10)