Rammstein - Benzin

Mon 31st Oct, 2005 in Music Reviews

Heh, heh. Fire. Heh heh.

That’s right, Beavis and Butthead fans, Rammstein has returned. The pyromaniacal Teutonic sextet’s next disc, Rosenrot has landed, and this is the first sample of what’s been happening in their neck of the woods. Before playing, I was filled with trepidation – would they have gone prog? Was this likely to be a disc of purely inflammable techno?

Thankfully, not much has changed. Liquid keyboard slurps and a slightly tremoloed guitar start things off before snappy-sounding drums begin building up and up for the overture that you know must follow.

And then, the distortion. Aaaaaah. As good as you remembered it.

It’s essentially Rammstein doing what Rammstein does best: play electro-tinged rock with no acknowledgement of restraint. Their grasp of dynamics remains pretty much the same as it’s ever been – the verse sections are a bit more restrained (read: quieter) than the striding-the-stage-with-arse-on-fire choruses – and as such, the song works pretty well. It’s no Sonne or Du Hast, but it’s not the worst tune in the band’s canon – it just seems that musically, there’s not that much different happening in the song. Till Lindemann’s gravelly vocals are, as ever, enthusiastic and angry, and the band sound, as ever, tight as fuck. If anything, it sounds like Flake Lorenz’s keys have been given a bit more rein than they’ve had before – at one point, developing a sort of hunting-call horn quality, which is quite appealing – but it seems occasionally throughout the song that they’re a little too high in the mix.

Subjectwise, the song’s about petrol. It’s sung in German, naturally, but you can get the gist. Till eschews cocaine, women and generally everything good in life in exchange for petrol, which (he claims in a verse continuing the manufactured-man leitmotif that’s been with the band for a while now):