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Reise Reise

Rammstein is a band perpetually surrounded by an air of controversy. That's just par for the course when you're a shock band, I suppose. Still, there's understandable reasons as to why one would not want to in any way support the band members. I have chosen to discuss the songs here, not the band. I do not idolize the members in any way.

I was introduced to Reise Reise by a close friend. I was drip-fed the songs through ominous recitings of the lyrics completely out of context. I had no clue that the lyrics were from a song, I just thought that they were humorously threatening me in German so I wouldn't understand what they were talking about. They even got me to translate Mein Teil's lyrics and I thought I was crazy when the lines took a cannibalistic turn. Thought I was just bad at German when I kept reading the lines as wanting to eat someone instead of wanting to eat with someone haha.

This kept happening all throughout the summer of 2024, and then I finally sat down and listened to the entire album on a train trip.

I was looking at the scenery, sitting on an electric train while the transition from Amerika to Moskau hit me like a... train I suppose.

My autistic ass had the time of his life! Trains AND music I enjoy!? Hell yeah.

I actually love the instruments in metal. The reason why I don't listen to it much is because of one thing and one thing only: The vocals. I cannot stand the way most heavy metal is sung. I'll be sitting there enjoying the intro to the song and then when the vocalist shows up I am instantly overstimulated. Man needs a cough drop or something. It's genuinely so sad because I really love stuff like the newer Doom games' OSTs because there aren't any vocals.

You may be wondering how I can stand Till Lindeman's singing then. The fact is that I can enjoy ´rough´ singing, just not the particular vocal technique popular among many metal singers. So Rammstein is great in this respect because the vocals don't overstimulate me.

Now on to the tracks:

Reise Reise

Banger. I especially love the somber accordion at the end. Especially also because it makes the next song's intro pretty startling

Mein Teil

Ah yes, the infamous Kannibalenlied.

I love how the slow, almost comforting accordion at the end of Reise Reise in no way prepares you for the way Mein Teil starts. Rammstein is really good at making a riff and then somehow repeating it all throughout without it getting old.

This song is based on a very real and pretty well-known case of cannibalism where Armin Meiwes killed and ate Bernd Jürgen.

Explanation of the case and some lyrical irony. Warning for cannibalism, castration and generally just some pretty graphic descriptions.

Meiwes was a mentally disturbed man who sought out someone to kill and then cannibalize. He was active on gore and cannibalism-related forums and found Jürgen on there. Jürgen was initially "only" interested in being castrated (yes genuinely) but after meeting Meiwes, backing out and then changing his mind yet again he decided to go through with it. The consent here was extremely dubious, so I'm not going to go around saying that this was fully consensual.

Over the following month or so Meiwes ate parts of Jürgen. He was eventually caught when he attempted to reach out to more people on the forums. One of the people he reached out to asked him if he had ever actually eaten someone, and when he said yes, he was reported to the police. They then tracked him down and found suspicious meat in the freezer, which was then tested and proven to be human meat.

At first Meiwes only got sentenced to 8 years in prison, but a few years after it was changed to a lifetime sentence given his persistent desires to eat people. Supposedly he's a vegetarian now to curb his urges.

Keep in mind that this case was extremely recent when Reise Reise came out.

In the lyrics there's quite a few references to things that actually happened in the real case.

One of them I rarely ever see anyone talk about, which surprises me. There is a deep irony in these particular lines:

"Ist doch so gut gewürzt

Und so schön flambiert

Und so liebevoll auf Porzellan serviert

Dazu ein guter Wein

Und zarter Kerzenschein

Ja, da lass' ich mir Zeit

Etwas Kultur muss sein"

This is the exact opposite of what happened in the the real life case of Armin Meiwes and Bernd Jürgen. There is no pretty way to put this so here goes: While Jürgen was still alive, they amputated his penis and attempted to cook it. They ended up accidentally burning it, so they fed it to the dog. The charming well-prepared meal described in the song is absolutely not what happened, and poking fun by juxtaposing the lyrics with the real case is absolutely intentional.

I also like how musical the scream is near the end. The way the choir also evokes the idea of angels coming down to claim the dead is very interesting.

Dalai Lama

I am not very familiar with the Der Erlkönig and what actually happens in the story, so the song's lyrical intricacies are lost on me.

I will say that the lines:

"Weiter, weiter ins Verderben

Wir müssen leben, bis wir sterben"

...often loop inside my head. There's just something about the rhythm that made my brain latch onto it.

Keine Lust

The instruments hit hard. The lyrics aren't trying to be covertly crass, they're just airing out in the open now!

The chorus and "Mir ist kalt" parts are especially good.

Los

Not a bad song, but it is rather weak in comparison to the other songs on the album. (with the exception of Amour, which I'll get to.

The lyrics aren't that resonant, but there seems to be some interesting wordplay going on, which I can appreciate. You could argue that this song's more laid back tone helps balance out the album. That is a fair argument, I just don't like this one that much.

The ominous part a little before the middle is interesting. I really like it.

I feel like it says enough that I keep forgetting this song whenever I try to remember Reise Reise's tracklist.

Amerika

"We're all living in Amerika

Amerika ist wunderbar"

This song still rings painfully true over 20 years later. America continues to impose their bullshit on the rest of the world... Especially now with a moron at the helm whose skintone matches the album cover.

This song is not just about being salty about imported American media saturating European markets. In reality it's moreso about how America's politics and general attitudes keep forcing their way into the rest of the world.

There is a very real sense of entitlement among the people in power in America. This has been true for a while, but now in 2026 it's gotten laughably bad.

I also appreciate how clear they make it that this truly is not a love song. Yeah, it may seem dumb to some but there truly are some thick-skulled morons among Rammstein listeners, and they don't get to stay ignorant. Obviously they aren't exactly going to listen, but you can try.

I feel like Amerika flows pretty well into Moskau. When I first listened I was actually unsure if the song had changed.

Moskau

I really like the way this song is built up, but the voice of Viktoria Fersch is overused and that is sad to me. I do like her singing but it ends up oversaturating the song.

Morgenstern

The heavenly choir at the start is how I feel when I listen to Morgenstern.

This song is fantastic. The song is quite sad, really, but there's an ambiguously bittersweet ending to it I really like.

The instruments feel perfectly balanced.

My favourite part is probably the last "Du bist hasslich" of the song. There's just something wonderful about the way the song picks back up here.

Stein um Stein

This was one of the songs my friend ominously sang the lyrics of. I was convinced they were threatening to trap me in Minecraft or something.

Some Rammstein songs decide to slowly build up until they practically explode. Stein um Stein is one of them and it's genuinely so good. Another example of this is (in my opinion) Nebel.

The vaguely audible sample scream in the backround is strangely beautiful. I also really like the desperate scream at the very end.

Ohne dich

One of Rammstein's more wistful songs, and it really works here. It feels believable and is genuinely beautiful.

Amour

...and now from a wonderful high point to the absolute lowest of the album.

This song just feels unfinished. The lyrics are generic and something is missing until the last 1/3 of the song.

I might have given this song more grace if it was shorter, and if the guitar wasn't so repetetive. During the chorus it feels like a massive brick of sound instead of something interesting.

The guitar solo by the end though? That's very awesome and it really saves the album from ending badly. Almost weighs out the quite frankly terrible "Bitte bitte" part.

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