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So, I've listened to my new Rammstein acquisitions. And now, a few thoughts:
Herzeleid: Oh, wow. Look, I know most of the songs on this record are good because they were outstanding on Live Aus Berlin. "Laichzeit" and "Ihr Wollt Das Bett Im Flammen Sehen" are standouts live, as is "Du Riechst So Gut"(and the spellchecker on my LJ client is having a psychotic break with all this German). But if Herzeleid had been the first album I had heard, I would never have become a hopeless, jonesing Rammstein fiend.
The production is awful. The vocals sound like Till Lindemann stuck his head inside a metal bucket, beat it with a hammer, and then read a script with all the verve and panache of a first-day drama student. He sounds like he's singing from the murky bottom of a Coke can. And the keyboards...
Well. They keyboards sound like the cheapest model available, one you might find at Big Lots. The display model that's fallen off the shelf eight times and been glued together with spit and baby poop. And it sounds like Flake has dragged this model deep into the cavernous bowels of a German butcher's fleshy rectum. Now just imagine the butcher's flabby butt cheeks flapping in time to "Seeman" or "Laichzeit". Go on, I dare you to conjure that mental image. Now imagine Flake's bewildered eyeball peeping warily from his beefy bumhole. There. You're welcome.
Mutter: Mutter is a much more polished album, but it's also lost a measure of its grinding guitar-driven angst. There are still thundering metal tunes that inspire the burning need to throw up the devil horns and dislocate cervical vertebrae; "Links 2 3 4", "Feuer Frei!" and "Rein Raus" are dirty, nasty riffs that make my harelipped kitty happy happy, but they're balanced by "Mutter" and "Spieluhr", which have a slick, techno flavor. I was mildly disappointed on the first listen, fearing that age had mellowed the roar of the German lion, but now I love it. Sehnsucht is still my favorite, but Mutter is a close second.
I also watched the DVD version of Volkerball and am in love with "Los"; God, what a nastyfine groove on that baby, bluesy and grungy and down by the balls. "Ohne Dich" isn't bad, either, so I suppose I'll be plunking down the cash for Reise, Reise soon. Who am I kidding? I've got Rammstein fever so bad that I'm going to buy Reise, Reise and Rosenrot the next time I leave the house. Thus, my Rammstein catalogue will be complete until the release of their new album later this year.
If any of this has piqued your curiosity, Google "Feuer Frei!", "Los", or "Sehnsucht". You won't be sorry.
Fear Itself was fantastic last night. "Eater" was creepy as hell. The pacing, direction, and atmosphere were superb, and Stuart Gordon didn't take the easy way out. No last-minute miracles here; the tiny rookie cop who had no chance of surviving a 6'11" serial killer cannibal didn't. She died a horribly unfair, painful death, but she also demonstrated that she would've made a wonderful cop had the circumstances been different. She showed extraordinary guts and courage. I don't know many of us who, when faced with the knowledge that we're going to be eaten alive by a cannibal, would have the gumption and presence of mind to swallow rat poison so that our heart would be his last. I knew no one was going to save her, but I hoped someone would, and that's rare in an age where horror movies are filled with so much unsympathetic, shrieking monster fodder.
The episode wasn't perfect. If the cannibal could assume the identities of his victims, why not just assume the identity of an officer and leave through the front door? We know he went outside to chain the doors shut. Why not just keep walking? Roomie opined that Meller(the cannibal) couldn't resist the thrill of the hunt. Okay, I can buy that. That still doesn't explain how he got out of the cell in the first place, or when he killed the sergeant.
But horror is predicated largely on atmosphere, and "Eaters" had it in spades. A superior example of the genre, and if this show does make it to DVD, I'll buy it for this episode alone.
Herzeleid: Oh, wow. Look, I know most of the songs on this record are good because they were outstanding on Live Aus Berlin. "Laichzeit" and "Ihr Wollt Das Bett Im Flammen Sehen" are standouts live, as is "Du Riechst So Gut"(and the spellchecker on my LJ client is having a psychotic break with all this German). But if Herzeleid had been the first album I had heard, I would never have become a hopeless, jonesing Rammstein fiend.
The production is awful. The vocals sound like Till Lindemann stuck his head inside a metal bucket, beat it with a hammer, and then read a script with all the verve and panache of a first-day drama student. He sounds like he's singing from the murky bottom of a Coke can. And the keyboards...
Well. They keyboards sound like the cheapest model available, one you might find at Big Lots. The display model that's fallen off the shelf eight times and been glued together with spit and baby poop. And it sounds like Flake has dragged this model deep into the cavernous bowels of a German butcher's fleshy rectum. Now just imagine the butcher's flabby butt cheeks flapping in time to "Seeman" or "Laichzeit". Go on, I dare you to conjure that mental image. Now imagine Flake's bewildered eyeball peeping warily from his beefy bumhole. There. You're welcome.
Mutter: Mutter is a much more polished album, but it's also lost a measure of its grinding guitar-driven angst. There are still thundering metal tunes that inspire the burning need to throw up the devil horns and dislocate cervical vertebrae; "Links 2 3 4", "Feuer Frei!" and "Rein Raus" are dirty, nasty riffs that make my harelipped kitty happy happy, but they're balanced by "Mutter" and "Spieluhr", which have a slick, techno flavor. I was mildly disappointed on the first listen, fearing that age had mellowed the roar of the German lion, but now I love it. Sehnsucht is still my favorite, but Mutter is a close second.
I also watched the DVD version of Volkerball and am in love with "Los"; God, what a nastyfine groove on that baby, bluesy and grungy and down by the balls. "Ohne Dich" isn't bad, either, so I suppose I'll be plunking down the cash for Reise, Reise soon. Who am I kidding? I've got Rammstein fever so bad that I'm going to buy Reise, Reise and Rosenrot the next time I leave the house. Thus, my Rammstein catalogue will be complete until the release of their new album later this year.
If any of this has piqued your curiosity, Google "Feuer Frei!", "Los", or "Sehnsucht". You won't be sorry.
Fear Itself was fantastic last night. "Eater" was creepy as hell. The pacing, direction, and atmosphere were superb, and Stuart Gordon didn't take the easy way out. No last-minute miracles here; the tiny rookie cop who had no chance of surviving a 6'11" serial killer cannibal didn't. She died a horribly unfair, painful death, but she also demonstrated that she would've made a wonderful cop had the circumstances been different. She showed extraordinary guts and courage. I don't know many of us who, when faced with the knowledge that we're going to be eaten alive by a cannibal, would have the gumption and presence of mind to swallow rat poison so that our heart would be his last. I knew no one was going to save her, but I hoped someone would, and that's rare in an age where horror movies are filled with so much unsympathetic, shrieking monster fodder.
The episode wasn't perfect. If the cannibal could assume the identities of his victims, why not just assume the identity of an officer and leave through the front door? We know he went outside to chain the doors shut. Why not just keep walking? Roomie opined that Meller(the cannibal) couldn't resist the thrill of the hunt. Okay, I can buy that. That still doesn't explain how he got out of the cell in the first place, or when he killed the sergeant.
But horror is predicated largely on atmosphere, and "Eaters" had it in spades. A superior example of the genre, and if this show does make it to DVD, I'll buy it for this episode alone.
Tags:
- dvd,
- fear itself,
- herzeleid,
- music,
- mutter,
- rammstein,
- tv,
- volkerball