Rammstein - Masters of Time

A champion of the contrary, the German group love to sow doubt around them. The group let ten long years go by between Liebe ist für alle da and Rammstein, they waited less than three years before delivering Zeit to the delight of their fans. An album composed and recorded in the middle of a pandemic, a troubled period which the musicians took advantage of by taking the time to work on every detail individually before entering the studio. Where Rammstein was somewhat disappointing, due to a 'phoned-in' style and partly autopilot content, this new album offers a different side while respecting the canons that forged the band's identity.

We find here a band whose members, all in their fifties, seem to have taken a step back from life, and accepted to let some cracks appear, making their music more "raw" and less pompous than in the past, without losing any of its power. This evolution owes a lot to Flake's careful keyboard work, and is beautifully embodied on songs like Zeit and Schwarz. Rammstein has lost none of its bite or offbeat humour, as evidenced by the tracks Dicke Titten (literally "big boobs") and Angst. Better still, some of the atmospheres evoke the best of the band, somewhere between Sehnsucht and Mutter, a blessed period for those who knew the band at the top of its game. There are still some experiments, such as the use of auto-tune pushed to the limit at the end of Lügen, which will divide you as much as it will make you smile.

Without talking about a radical departure from its comfort zone, Rammstein offers a real breath of fresh air to its music, while sowing doubt through the closing track, Farewell, that everyone will interpret in their own way. After all, didn't the band already open a mausoleum in its effigy in which the six death masks of its members were found on the occasion of the release of its best-of Made In Germany in 2011...