Rammstein

[ivyfic]

I just acquired the Rammstein album "Reise, Reise." I love Rammstein's particular German industrial style, and this album does not disappoint. There's just this one pesky problem.

The beginning of the first track is the black box tape recording for Japan Airlines Flight 123.

I'd heard of this crash before--it's a pretty famous one. I'd even read what was on the recording, so as it started playing I recognized it, but kept hoping I was mistaken.

Now, I don't mind that the group is named after mid-flight accident that killed 70 people. (Heck, one of my favorite songs is about a guy that shot himself in the head on live television--that would be "Hey Man, Nice Shot" by Filter.) I don't mind that one of the songs on the album is about that German cannibal (I would be surprised if they didn't write about it), or that they've written a really tasteless song about transgendered individuals. And a really tasteless song about mothers. They've written a lot of tasteless songs. Bad taste is kind of the point of Rammstein. I do mind that they actually played me the flight recorder.

Apparently on the European release, it's an Easter Egg you have to fiddle around with the CD player to hear. Not so on the American release. Boo, Rammstein. Boo.

Comments

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Who is that Filter song about? I never heard that.

You can't expect Rammstein not to use the cannibal material. Aside from this one Japanese guy and Dahmer (who is now dead), there aren't any other really infamous cannibals running around. Germans have a right to be morbidly proud of their "hero."

Also, I find it really funny that you listen to Rammstein. Not that they're bad (I like a few songs), just...funny.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

The Filter song is about Budd Dwyer. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hey_Man%2C_Nice_Shot) I leave you to read the gruesome details.

I love Rammstein! I also love Nine Inch Nails, so should this surprise you? It's a combination of the ludicrous pun-filled lyrics, the German (I really like the sound of the German language and Till Lindemann uses all those glottal sounds to full effect) and the fact that it's really awesome music. They've got that loud metal sound, but they also use strings and other instruments which fleshes it out. My favorite song is "Mein Herz Brennt," which was in the Hellboy II trailer. This was cool not just cause I love the song, but because it's about dark fairytales. The lyrics are playing on a German children's song and it's talking about black fairies and monsters in the darkness and all that stuff, which is very apropos.

If I'd thought about it, I would completely have predicted the cannibal song. It's a good song. It's called "Mein Teil" which means my peice, but is, of course, also slang for my dick.

It's just that the data recorder--that made me not able to sleep. I believe that there are appropriate circumstances to use recordings of people's death--that it can be instructive or that it can be a fitting memorial to them. But you do not just throw it out there for cheap entertainment. The fact is that nothing Rammstein could ever write or perform would give the same effect as those thirty seconds of tape, which is of course why they used it. Because it's just that horrible.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Interesting story. I'm sure I've shared details about that reporter who shot herself on TV, right? Fun fun fun.

I knew about Nine Inch Nails, but there's something both HARDER CORE and ridiculous about Rammstein. Like I said, it's just funny.

The slang used in "Mein Teil" refers to the portion of the man that the German cannibal fellow ate while that man was still alive. Yes, a man ate his own penis with the man who would eventually eat all of him. Yay cannibalism?

The flight recorder thing is just horrid. It's charged in a way you're not expecting and horrible in a way that speaks to a thousand nightmares. I feel that sort of thing ought to have a warning. Hell, I got upset at having the trailers for World Trade Center sprung on me unawares, and that's a fictive rendition of real events, not the recordings from the tragedy itself. Yeah, that's entirely shameless and gross.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I think I wouldn't have even minded if it was a dramatic reenactment, which is what I thought at first. The package of the album is made to look like a flight recorder box (which I didn't get) and says "Flight recorder. Do Not Open" on the front, but in German.

The thing is, they don't even talk about the crash in any of the songs. The album's theme is travel, so they have the first song about sailors and a later one adapting a poem by Goethe to airplane travel. So having the flight recorder there is kind of random, as well as being horrible.

I was just thinking about how metal, in particular, often "uses" real tragedies or murders as the subject of the songs, which really doesn't bother me. Whether you call the music art or not, I think it's perfectly fine to draw inspiration wherever you find it. I don't mind them quoting the cannibals actual want ad. The problem is that actual recordings like this should only be used with the utmost respect. Filter (as far as I know) didn't make a video using footage of Dwyer's death. This would be like sticking the photos of people jumping from the Twin Towers on the cover of an album.

Sorry to keep harping on this, but since I already knew a lot about the crash I knew the exact significance of what I was hearing. It's one of those things that's like a worm in your brain that you can't get rid of until you share it with someone else.

I'll probably just edit that out of the track so I can still listen to the song, but with my CD burner kaput that's easier said than done.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I don't see anything wrong with your reaction. THe effort of trying to be edgy by being disgusting is just...disgusting. It's not something you asked for when engaging in this music. I realize that a lot of metal does want to do more than just simulate emotions for you, but there's a difference between moving you with talent and disturbing you with tragedy. Gross, gross, gross.

[deltagrl.livejournal.com]

Ooof. That's creepy.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Creepy's not the word I would use. Horrible, disturbing and blatant exploitation are words I would use. I don't mind using tragedies as inspiration for a song--Rammstein has kind of grand guignol lyrics, which is fine. But there's a big difference between exploiting the story of someone's horrible death and actually playing the tape of the last few seconds of their life, especially in this case. Plus, I did not want to have that in my brain.

But I'm sure that was the point.