May 2020 Feature Release - The Sphere Edition

It's now May 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.  

This month's feature release for The Sphere is 1997's second album from German industrial metal leaders Rammstein entitled "Sehnsucht". We recently took a look at Rammstein's classic "Mutter" album & found that some of you were more than open to the Neue Deutsche Härte sound so we thought we'd give you another taste of one of the better examples of this niche subgenre. Enjoy!

I think it's incredible that this is the album that preceded Mutter, because this is so much less refined and overall kind of boring. The EDM portion of Rammstein's music is one of the things that makes it Neue Deutsche Härte, and Rammstein really wanted to hammer that home on this album. It's incredibly hokey on tracks like "Sehnsucht", "Eifersucht" and "Küss Mich (Fellfrosch)" where they really try to make their electronic beats sound like bumping club music. The electronics work really well in normal Rammstein fashion on tracks like "Engel" and of course "Du Hast" where they're used to inject another interesting melody alongside the signature guitar riffing and heavy tone, but the rest of the tracks were duds for me. It's not bad by any means but you can really tell that they were really dead set on trying to integrate as many wacky sound effects or EDM beats as possible amidst the riffing. The vocal performance is still strong though, although from what I know it's better if you don't know what the lyrics actually mean and settle for "German sounds cool for this kind of music". 

This is an important stepping stone album for Neue Deutsche Härte since Mutter, released 4 years later, abandons a lot of the silliness and shows the band maturing a ton. I think this album is great for people who really want a true Neue Deutsche Härte experience since they really dig into the EDM roots, but it pales in comparison to their next two or three albums for me. 

3/5

I always intended on checking out Rammstein's popular sophomore album after quite liking their career-defining 2001 third full-length "Mutter" several years ago now but it's been a lot longer between drinks than I originally intended. "Sehnsucht" offers a very similar level of appeal for me though, without quite managing to match its younger sibling. The electronic dance music influence is quite prominent here while the vocals of front man Till Lindemann often remind me of System of a Down's Serj Tankian during the more subdued moments. The simple yet chunky riffage is clearly influenced by Ministry although it lacks the chaotic edge of those Americans & can sound a little samey with similar formulas being utilized across the tracklisting. Interestingly, it's not the big hits that I most connect with with lesser-known material like "Spiel mit mir" & "Alter Mann" being my picks of the bunch. There are a few duds included (see "Tier", "Bestrafe mich" & "Eifersucht") but the positives outweigh the negatives fairly comfortably & I've ended up quite enjoying my time with "Sehnsucht" without being able to see myself returning to it any time soon.

For fans of Oomph!, Lindemann & Eisbrecher.

3.5/5