February 2020 Feature Release - The Sphere Edition

It's now February which of course means that we'll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we're asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. Ben & I will certainly be contributing & we look forward to hearing your thoughts too.     

This month's feature release for The Sphere is 2001's classic third album from German industrial metal masters Rammstein entitled "Mutter". This album is often referred to as the absolute pinnacle of the Neue Deutsche Härte movement (i.e. a style of metal that incorporates elements of electronic/dance music) & it took the popularity Rammstein had generated previously to unparalleled levels; enabling the band to take their ridiculously over the top live show to even more extreme heights. We're keen to hear what YOU think of it.

In an attempt to catch up with these monthly releases and get back on track, might as well throw something at what I think is the best Rammstein has to offer. Although Rammstein are now a recognizable, mainstream, and international super group, I feel like few people talk about their albums as a whole. As someone who's gone through most of their discography in the past, Mutter just has this band's best ideas and songs when compared to any of their other releases. Rammstein hasn't exactly evolved too much over the years, which is somewhat of a downfall for them since Liebe ist fur alle da and Rammstein are lukewarm at best, so Mutter is filled to the brim with exactly what you would expect out of the German Industrial powerhouses. "Mein Herz Brennt", "Links 2 3 4", "Ich Will", "Mutter", and "Rein Raus" are the highlights for me, each having crushing industrial riffs with a theatrical electronic edge that showcase what Rammstein does best. Part of me wishes that Neue Deutsche Härte is explored a bit more by other groups and comes back into the spotlight, since I think there's a lot of potential past what Rammstein accomplished in the early 2000's.

4/5

So I've finally gotten around to giving "Mutter" a few spins over the last couple of days which is likely my first experience with the Neue Deutsche Härte subgenre overall. My initial impressions weren't good as I found this music to be overly simplistic & more than a little cheesy. Interestingly though, the song-writing really opened up on my third listen & I ended up finding "Mutter" to be a pretty fun listen even though it's never likely to become a regular as far as return visits go. For fans of Eisbrecher, Oomph! & Lindemann.

3.5/5