Rammstein



Rammstein is a six-man self-described "tanz-metall" (dance metal, though their actual style has them as the codifiers of Neue Deutsche Härte, a form of industrial metal) band hailing from Germany. They take their name from the Ramstein airshow disaster of 1988, adding an extra 'm' to give the double meaning of "Battering Ram" (literally 'Ramming Stone'). The band consists of:


 * Till Lindemann - lead vocals
 * Richard Z. Kruspe - guitars, backing vocals
 * Paul Landers - rhythm guitars, backing vocals
 * Oliver 'Ollie' Riedel - bass
 * Christoph 'Doom' Schneider - drums
 * Christian 'Flake' Lorenz - keyboards

Check them at the Character Musician sheet.

Discography as of 2011:
 * Herzeleid (1995)
 * Sehnsucht (1997)
 * Mutter (2001)
 * Reise, Reise (2004)
 * Rosenrot (2005)
 * Liebe ist für alle da (2009)
 * Made in Germany 1995 - 2011 (2011)

Videography:
 * Live aus Berlin (1999)- a recording of their 1998 concert tour (also available as a live album). Features music from their first two albums. Known for their controversial performance of Bück dich.
 * Lichtspielhaus (2003)- a compilation of their music videos up to Feuer Frei!.
 * Völkerball (2006)- a recording of their 2004-2005 tour (also available as a live album). Features music from their first five albums.
 * A DVD of their Madison Square Garden and Montreal shows is confirmed.

The band has named the following tropes

 * Music to Invade Poland To: Via review of their album Mutter.
 * We All Live in America: From a line of the song "Amerika". Richard does live in America, exactly in New York City. Have you ever heard him sing for Emigrate? He even sounds American. Just a wee bit'a irony.
 * Americans Love Rammstein: The German correspondent in This Very Wiki to Germans Love David Hasselhoff.

Song tropes

 * Abusive Parents: "Laichzeit", "Tier" and "Wiener Blut".
 * And I Must Scream: The victim in "Stein Um Stein" is being trapped inside the walls of a house. Lampshaded in that the last line of the song actually translates to "And no one will hear you scream."
 * Album Filler: Rosenrot as a whole. In fact, most of it is composed by leftover material of the recordings for Reise, Reise. Aside from "Mann Gegen Mann", "Rosenrot", "Benzin" and "Te Quiero Puta", no songs from Rosenrot were played in concerts.
 * All Germans Are Nazis: The band wrote "Links 2-3-4" as their counterarguement to this accusation. They've even said on interviews that they hate Nazis as well.
 * Anti Love Song: Many of them, but "Stein Um Stein" and "Amour" come to mind.
 * Audience Participation Song: "Ich Will", "Ohne Dich", "Du Hast", "Engel"...
 * Author Vocabulary Calendar: The sun shining is referenced in some way in "Rammstein," "Engel," "Küss Mich (Fellfrosch)," "Mein Herz Brennt," "Sonne," "Mutter," "Morgenstern," "Mann Gegen Mann" and "Hilf Mir." Liebe Ist Für Alle Da is the only album where this theme does not come up.
 * Based on a True Story: "Rammstein" (the song), "Mein Teil" and "Wiener Blut" were based on true events, the first on the Ramstein air show disaster (from which they also take their name), the second on the case of Armin Meiwes, the latter on the Fritzl case.
 * Bilingual Bonus: "Moskau" has parts sung in Russian; "Amerika", "Pussy" and "Stirb Nicht Vor Mir" have parts sung in English; (there're also English versions of "Du Hast", "Engel" and "Amerika" among the singles) "Amour" and "Frühling in Paris" have some parts sung in French; and "Te Quiero Puta!" is sung entirely in Spanish.
 * Also, an astounding amount of wordplay in their songs, just in general.
 * Till is fairly well qualified for the title of Pungeon Master.
 * Black Sheep Hit: "Benzin".
 * Brother Brother Incest: "Spiel Mit Mir".
 * Call-and-Response Song: "Ich Will".
 * Careful With That Axe: The end of "Stein Um Stein".
 * Cover Version: They have done covers of Depeche Mode's "Stripped", The Ramones's "Pet Semetary", Kraftwerk's "Das Model" (with the title of the cover version being spelt as "Das Modell"), and Aria's "Shtil" (with the cover titled "Schtiel"). Recently, Till worked with Apocalyptica to do a German cover of David Bowie's "Heroes".
 * Cue the Sun: Sonne.
 * Driven to Suicide: The song "Spring", where a man gets on to a bridge to enjoy the view, but a crowd forms eager to see him jump.
 * Drugs Are Bad: One possible interpretation of the song "Adios", where the narrator talks about a person injecting himself with a drug and overdosing.
 * Eagle Land: "Amerika" satirizes Type 2.
 * Egomaniac Hunter: "Waidmann's Heil", with bonus implications of rape.
 * Endofthe World As We Know It: "Der Meister", describing a classical biblical apocalypse.
 * Evil Laugh: "Eifersucht" and "Benzin".
 * Excited Song Title!: "Feuer Frei!"
 * Exactly What It Says On the Tin: "Ein Lied" is German for "A Song". This is, of course, a song.
 * Foreign People Are Sexy: Sort of parodied in "Pussy". This is why there's the Gratuitous German in a predominantly English song. The song itself is also a parody on the sex tourism trade.
 * Hermaphrodite: The song "Zwitter" (which does indeed translate as "Hermaphrodite").
 * I Love the Dead: "Heirate Mich" is about marrying a corpse. The title very loosely translates into "Marry Me", or alternatively, "Be My Wife".
 * I Taste Delicious: "Mein Teil".
 * I'm a Humanitarian: "Mein Teil", which is about a famous news story of a cannibal who advertised on the internet for someone willing to be killed and eaten by him. His victim being entirely willing and cooperative in his own brutal demise did not prevent a conviction for manslaughter in the case. In the Völkerball performance of this song, Till "cooks" Flake.
 * With a flamethrower.
 * Incest Is Relative: "Spiel Mit Mir" and "Wiener Blut".
 * Intentionally Awkward Title: "Pussy".
 * Intercourse With You: Pretty much half of their songs. Special mention for including "Blitzkrieg mit dem Fleischgewehr" and references to putting bratwurst in someone else's sauerkraut in "Pussy". "Rein Raus" also deserves a mention. Some of the Double Entendres Till comes up with are impressively creative.
 * Interplay of Sex and Violence: Fairly common, usually wound up in Intercourse With You.
 * Interrupted Suicide: Inverted in "Spring", in which
 * Last-Note Nightmare: "Stein um Stein".
 * Lighter and Softer: A surprising number of their remixes are almost ambient sounding.
 * Lyrical Dissonance: "Der Meister" qualifies, with happy-sounding keyboards and riffs in a song about a predicted apocalypse.
 * Magic Realism: "Dalai Lama" is a modern reworking of "Der Erlkönig" by Goethe.
 * Meaningful Name: "Dalai Lama" refers to the 14th Dalai Lama's fear of flying, and the song is "Der Erlkönig" on a plane.
 * Metal Scream: Used (to an extent) in the chorus of "Wiener Blut", and at a few points in "Mann Gegen Mann". The ending of "Stein um Stein" also counts... doubly reinforced by the final word meaning "scream."
 * Misplaced Nationalism: "Amerika" is not meant to be a pro-America song. You'd think the bridge, "This is not a love song!" growled repeatedly would be a clue.
 * Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness: Varies wildly up and down the scale, from 1 or 2 (e.g. "Ein Lied") up to 7 or 8 (e.g "Mein Teil"), and everything in between.
 * Movie Bonus Song:
 * The songs "Halleluja" and "Mein Teil" have been featured on the soundtracks for the first two live-action Resident Evil movies, respectively. The soundtrack to the third Resident Evil movie featured Emigrate's "My World".
 * xXx featured the song "Feuer Frei!", which resulted in Rammstein making a cameo at the beginning of xXx.
 * Mummies At the Dinner Table: "Heirate mich" and "Klavier".
 * Murder Ballad: "Weisses Fleisch", "Du Riechst So Gut", "Mein Teil", "Stein Um Stein", and "Klavier". "Heirate Mich" is a post-mortem version, of sorts.
 * Non-Appearing Title: "Alter Mann", "Nebel", "Dalai Lama", "Wiener Blut", "Rammlied".
 * Obligatory Bondage Song: "Bück Dich", "Ich tu dir weh" and the unreleased "Feuerräder".
 * Obsession Song: "Du Riechst So Gut", among others.
 * Ominous Music Box Tune: "Spieluhr". (The title translates to "Music Box", as well.)
 * One-Woman Wail: The finale to "Sonne." Notable for being a stock sample played on Flake's keyboard instead of an actual, y'know, woman.
 * Parental Incest: "Wiener Blut" is supposedly based off the Josef Fritzl case.
 * "Laichzeit" mixes this with Sibling Incest and, in the third verse, But You Screw One Goat!.
 * "Tier" had father/daughter rape, The Live aus Berlin features as the child in the cage.
 * Parental Abandonment: "Mutter".
 * Power Ballad: "Ohne Dich", "Amour", "Roter Sand", "Nebel", "Stirb Nicht Vor Mir" and "Frühling in Paris", amongst other examples.
 * Precision F-Strike: "Weiss ich endlich... ICH WILL FICKEN"--"I know at last, I want to fuck". Punctuated in the early live shows with a firework launched from Till's crotch for extra subtlety. Especially jarring when one remembers that the man himself rarely swears in interviews and the band's catalog, for all its rampant innuendo, contains little to no profanity.
 * Pun-Based Title: "Du Hast" translates to "You Have" (in the song, the line is extended to "Du hast mich gefragt und ich hab nichts gesagt"— "You asked me and I didn't say anything"), but sounds just like "Du Hasst" which means "You Hate." It doesn't help that an English version was recorded under the latter title.
 * Pyromaniac: "Benzin" is, in many ways, a love song to flame. It's more surprising that it took them five albums to write it than that it was one of the few songs from Rosenrot ever played in concert.
 * Some lyrics from "Benzin" are also the top quote on the trope page itself.
 * Rape Is Love: Horrifically deconstructed in "Liebe ist für alle da", at least according to one interpretation.
 * Rule 34: "Pussy". The video premiered on a porn site. And that's just the canon example.
 * Shout Out: The strange screaming noises in "Wollt Ihr Das Bett in Flamen Sehen?" are creature death sounds from Doom.
 * Soprano and Gravel: "Engel", "Moskau", to some extent "Spieluhr" (which features vocals from Khira Li, Richard's daughter), and "Stirb Nicht Vor Mir (Don't Die Before I Do)" (featuring vocals from Sharleen Spiteri of Texas). Also "Halleluja", the hidden track from Mutter.
 * Split Personality: "Führe Mich".
 * Stalker With a Crush: The narrator of "Du Riechst So Gut".
 * Surprisingly Gentle Song: "Ohne Dich", "Ein Lied", "Amour", "Nebel", "Frühling in Paris", "Roter Sand" and "Stirb Nicht Vor Mir" (the latter two are notable for not featuring any heavy guitars)... they have a fair few songs like this.
 * Take That:
 * "Amerika" can be seen as one towards Eagle Land.
 * "Pussy" is a mockery of sexual tourism, with lines like "I can't get laid in Germany!".
 * "Mein Land" is an anti-nationalism song.
 * Take That Critics: "Links 2-3-4" was written as a counterargument against those who accuse the band of having Nazi sympathies.
 * This Is Sparta: "RAMM! STEIN!"
 * Title-Only Chorus: "Herzeleid", "Heirate Mich", "Links 2-3-4", "Mutter", "Rein Raus", "Benzin".
 * True Companions: "Haifisch" can be seen as a form of principle declaration.
 * Unusual Euphemism

Music Video tropes

 * The Band Minus the Face: "Haifisch". The rest of the band are already discussing who to replace Till with at his own funeral.
 * Beach Episode: The video for "Mein Land".
 * Call Back: Among others, the video for "Haifisch" references the videos for "Du Hast" and "Sonne".
 * The Cameo: Marilyn Manson (the person) appears in "Haifisch" in a few blink-and-you'll-miss-it shots.
 * Concept Video: Most of them.
 * A Date With Rosie Palms: Frau Schneider in "Mein Teil".
 * Dominatrix: Snow White in "Sonne".
 * Driven to Suicide: plays a suicide jumper in "Benzin".
 * Dude Looks Like a Lady: Schneider makes a surprisingly convincing woman in "Mein Teil".
 * Easter Egg: The "Ich tu dir weh" video.
 * Fan Service: The "Mein Land" video features the entire band shirtless and in beach wear for most of it (and Till as a lifeguard), not to mention a lot of bikini-clad women. Towards the end, there are very quick shots of topless women and other women making out with each other.
 * Fille Fatale: In the "Rosenrot" video. Emphasis on "fatale".
 * Firemans Safety Net: In "Benzin".
 * Firemen Are Hot: The "Benzin" video.
 * Foot Focus: "Engel," in a Shout Out to From Dusk Till Dawn.
 * The Fun in Funeral: The "Haifisch" video.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom / Red Eyes Take Warning: In "Du Riechst So Gut '98".
 * Grimmification: The video for "Sonne" is a rather dark take on Disney's version of Snow White, featuring the band members as masochistic dwarves working for a gold dust-addicted Snow White.
 * Hermaphrodite: Flake's character in "Pussy".
 * Kill It With Fire: in "Rosenrot".
 * Made of Explodium: The car in the "Du Hast" video. Crosses with Stuff Blowing Up.
 * Masquerade Ball: "Du Riechst So Gut '98".
 * Media Scrum: In the video for "Ich Will".
 * Mind Screw: Half their music videos. Just try to figure out what was going on in the "Pussy" and "Ich Tu Dir Weh" videos, both directed by Jonas Akerlund.
 * On a Soundstage All Along: The video for "Amerika". The band are rocking out on the moon, before the cameras pull back to reveal it's a film set. This is also a gag at the expense of those who think the moon landings were faked on a soundstage.
 * Our Werewolves Are Different: In the video for "Du Riechst So Gut '98", the band members play a pack of werewolves.
 * Parody: The "Pussy" video is an over-the-top parody of Gangsta Rap and Glam Rap videos, according to Schneider.
 * Pec Flex: "Mann Gegen Mann"'s video.
 * Performance Video: They usually avoid this trope with their videos, but both "Feuer Frei!" (also a Video Full of Film Clips) and "Ich tu dir weh" are this type of video.
 * Playing to The Fetishes: There's a scantily-clad snake-holding woman in the "Engel" video, as well as foot fetishism.
 * All the band members dropping their trousers and getting spanked by the Snow White character in the "Sonne" video.
 * Five sixths of the band leashed, gagged, and on hands and knees and being walked down the streets of Berlin while by a cross-dressed Schneider in the end of "Mein Teil".
 * Refuge in Audacity: Several of their videos, especially "Pussy" and "Mann Gegen Mann".
 * Sexy Secretary: This is the role of the woman who seduces Schneider's CEO character in the "Pussy" video.
 * Snakes Are Sexy: "Engel".
 * Shirtless Scene: "Mann Gegen Mann" is a Clothingless Scene.
 * "Mein Land" has the band shirtless for most of it.
 * Shout Out: All the fantasies the other band members have of killing Till in "Haifisch" are related to previous videos: "Du Hast", "Ohne Dich", "Keine Lust", "Sonne", and "Amerika". Also, the final fantasy appears to be a shout out to the movie Se7en.
 * "Engel" plays heavy homage to From Dusk Till Dawn.
 * And "Du Hast" homages Reservoir Dogs.
 * During the end of "Mein Land", the band members are wearing Joker-style facepaint.
 * A Taste of the Lash: Used in the context of mortification of the flesh in "Rosenrot".
 * Transvestite: Frau Schneider in the "Mein Teil" video.
 * True Companions: Subverted in the video of "Haifisch". The video takes place at Till's funeral, and we see that the other band members have had fantasies of murdering him. They end up getting into a fight, which culminated in Flake crashing into Till's casket,
 * Video Full of Film Clips: "Feuer Frei!".
 * Walking Swimsuit Scene: "Mein Land".
 * Wet Sari Scene: The "kissing in the rain" scene in the "Du Riechst So Gut '98" video.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: The "Mein Land" video is set at a 60s beach party, despite being for an Industrial Metal song.
 * Worst Aid: As tearjerking and heartwarming the "Ohne Dich" video is, isn't it a bad idea to move someone with a broken bone? (Come to think of it, what the hell DID he break? Leg? Back?)
 * Possibly justified. The video is not particularly clear about the extent of the injuries, only showing a iffy-looking feet at one point which The Other Wiki claims is gangrene. In any case, leaving someone exposed to the elements is not the best of ideas either, and avoiding leaving Till there to get hypothermic and whatever other complications would probably trump avoiding the possibility of doing anymore damage by moving him somewhere safer. Related, drinking water straight from a mountain stream might not be the the thing to do.

Misc tropes

 * All Germans Are Nazis: They are frequent victims of this.
 * Butt Monkey: In the Made in Germany tour, Flake's status as the band's Butt Monkey is alleviated somewhat by the performance of "Bück dich", in which the entire band falls into Butt Monkey status. Till, Paul, Flake and Ollie are led on all fours and abused by Frau Schneider towards Richard, who also gets abused as well. Then, later, Till squirts his dildo right into Schneider's face mid-performance.
 * Creator Backlash: Schneider made it clear in an interview that he finds "Pussy" to be "completely stupid", and, in a 2010 Metal Hammer interview, he thought the same of the deluxe dildo boxset of Liebe ist für alle da.
 * East Germany: All of the band's members hail from here, though it had ceased to exist by the time the band was formed.
 * Easter Egg: The voice clip hidden either in the pregap of Reise, Reise for European pressings or at the start of the song for the US pressings. The clip itself is the last 38 seconds of the cockpit voice recording from the JAL123 disaster of 1985. What with the wee tiny matter of it being the deadliest single aircraft incident in history, said easter egg was removed from Japanese pressings and later US pressings. It's complicated.
 * Gag Penis: The cannon used during live performances of "Pussy".
 * A Good Name for A Rock Band: The band took their name from the Ramstein airshow disaster in 1988 and added an extra M.
 * Great Balls of Fire: All of their live shows and a fair few of their videos too.
 * Iconic Logo: The font used for the band name on CDs and DVDs, and the Rammstein cross.
 * Industrial Metal: (Tanz Metall)
 * Impressive Pyrotechnics: The concert shows. Aided in that Till is a licensed pyrotechnician. The band claims that it's meant to hold the attention of fans who don't speak German (which is probably a majority of the fanbase). It also crosses with Pyromaniac.
 * Long Runner Lineup: The band was founded in 1994 and there hasn't been a single lineup change since then.
 * Macho Masochism
 * Made of Explodium: It's not uncommon for things like Mic stands to either burst into an explosion when slammed into the ground... or burst into flames (while still being sung into) for no real reason.
 * Moral Guardians: A frequent target. They've been blamed for Columbine, and "Ich tu dir weh" was indexed in their home country. The reason behind it was "abuse promotion". There's also a picture of Richard spanking a nude woman in the album art for Liebe ist für alle da which got the same treatment for being "degrading to women".
 * The Nineties: The band formed in 1994.
 * Non-Fatal Explosions: When your band has a licensed pyrotechnician, you can't go wrong.
 * Till has gotten burnt a few times though.
 * Pyromaniac: The concerts and the songs. About the former, they routinely fire a flamethrower just above the mosh pit. About the latter, there are about as many songs about fire as there are about sex.
 * Rated M for Manly: And nothing epitomized it more than the original Herzeleid cover. Of course, that also started the Nazi accusations. Go figure.
 * Real Person Slash: Don't even act surprised.
 * Refuge in Audacity: Quite often. Bück dich live is one of the more memorable examples.
 * Shirtless Scene: When it comes to live shows, it's not a matter of whether this trope will happen or not, it's who specifically will invoke this trope. Take Volkerball, Ollie and Paul both end up shirtless by the end of the show.
 * And, as mentioned above, the original "Herzeleid" cover.
 * Shout Out: The cover art for "Mein Land" is based on the cover art for The Beach Boys album Surfer Girl.
 * Transvestite: This photoshoot.
 * Also, Frau Schneider makes a reappearance in the Made in Germany tour.
 * True Companions: The band has repeatedly stated that if any of its members were to leave, the entire band would quit. They have had the same lineup since they first began in 1994.
 * Whip It Good: During the Made in Germany performances of "Bück dich", Schneider (in full "Frau Schneider" mode) whips the other band members around with a riding crop.