Feuer Frei!

Bang bang – Feuer frei! 

Probably one of the most popular songs from my lovely boys, apart from Du Hast. One of their most extreme live-performances as well, having massive pillars of flames shooting out just a few inches from their face. Insane, but that’s how I love them.  The songs popularity may possibly have been boosted by the fact that it was the theme song of xXx movie with Vin Diesel.

What could be as simple as a tribute to pyro technique, I’ve always viewed as something a lot gloomier. A lot of bottled up anger can come from certain situations and upbringings, which is what I believe this song is about. The entire Mutter album seems to have its focus on childhood themes, Mein Herz Brennt and Mutter being beautiful examples. 

For me, this song can expose how all the anger you’ve kept inside sometimes can overflow and overwhelm a person. How people who have experienced something traumatic in life are a lot sturdier than people who haven’t, have the power to fight and bite back if they feel treated disrespectfully. An aggressive upbringing can easily cause aggressive behavior, which can make people fear them. 

From the people I know personally, I would have to admit that there is a lot more character to those who have felt how roughly life can treat you.
“Getadelt wird wer Schmerzen kennt, vom Feuer das die Haut verbrennt Ich werf ein Licht in mein Gesicht - Ein heisser Screi - Feuer Frei!"  Whoever knows pain becomes criticized from the fire that burned up the skin. I throw a light in my face - A hot cry - Fire freely! 

To me this explains how physical mistreatment can mark you substantially. How a person can come to terms with what has happened, the damage that has been dealt, and finally standing up to the rest of the world, acknowledging the situation, ready to fight on. “Feuer Frei” is sort of a battle-cry that Till shouts out to ready himself, ready the world for the new mindset.
”Gefährlich ist wer Schmerzen kennt vom Feuer das den Geist verbrennt.” Same concept as above, except it portrays mental abuse and the aftermath. 

Somehow the song has a very retribution-like theme, both in rendered in the hard beat of the drums and guitar synchronizing, but also in the lyrics, in between the lines. Fire is, after all, the most used metaphor for hatred and anger; an image of how those two emotions can destroy and burn out everything in its path.

Stein um Stein

A song I’ve always felt was underappreciated, is “Stein um Stein”.  It’s from the Reise, Reise album, and has rarely been performed live. An excellent live-performance of this song is from the live DVD “Völkerball”. I have a lot of different perspectives on this song, but as I’ve promised myself, I’ll give you my own version of the meaning first and add the others afterwards. 
I’ll advice you, if you don’t already know the lyrics/song, to read and listen before reading my blog, as I’ll make a lot of references that won’t make sense otherwise.

Stein um Stein live-performance.

My absolutely stunning friend Marie,
who was kind enough to let me cover her
in makeup and try to portray
one of the feelings this song can give me

Stein um Stein never fails to give me goose bumps, it’s perhaps one of the only songs from Rammstein that I’ve ever really felt physically uncomfortable from listening to. It keeps on shocking me, and I can honestly say that it scared me. Not only because of the obvious scare-factor of being trapped alive inside of a concrete wall, but the way some psychopaths are able to actually enclose their ‘victim’ in their own mind. I think it scares me because I’ve encountered it more than once, I’ve seen it from many perspectives. It’s a frightening feeling, the emotion of being afraid of your own shadow. Because it really is what psychopaths can do to a fragile mind. It’s scary how people can benefit on other peoples poor state of mind, and actually use them against themselves. I don’t necessarily view this song as a physical imprisonment, even though the thought is bloodcurdling. When imprisoned in your mind, getting out it not easy; it gets down to everything from behavior to habits, to how you used to think to how you react to certain words, smells and even how people approach you and where they touch you. You slowly decay inside your own mind and become your own worst enemy, even after the person has lost the control over you.  Somehow it really paints the picture of an egoist. “ICH habe plane”. Etc. His perfect idea of a relationship, not bothering to look to the significant other in the relationship, but entirely focusing on himself. I love how this song connects my body in a terrifying quiver, all along with surprising me yet again with the atmosphere. One of my friends who has no knowledge of the German language heard the song while it was playing silently in my room, and she actually felt quite uneasy. It was afterwards that she asked me to translate it for her, and she was left just as speechless, even staggered as I. She didn’t like metal and didn’t like Rammstein, but even she had to admit that it was indeed quite amazing that a song could give her such a feeling, even without really having an understanding. 

There are a lot of interpretations, and the above is just my personal experience based on subjective opinions. Now, let’s move onwards to the others I’ve been wanting to discuss. 

Photo taken by me in the German KZ camp
Neuengamme.

Another thing that strikes me, as the history geek I am, is the notorious theme of holocaust. With the words “Stone by stone, I wall you in”, not to mention “I have a plane big plans” + “Without clothes, without shoes, you watch me working. “No one will hear you scream”, and “You will never move out again.”

We associate the Jewish holocaust with the nazi death camps: “And you are to be part of it all.” 
This is an aspect that has been interesting to me for a long time. Because Rammstein faces a lot of nazi accusations, and I’m not exactly making it any better. But this is an aspect that I don’t feel should be overlooked, just as I don’t feel that the holocaust should be forgotten. Not that I link it with the people of Germany today, but ‘just’ a reminder, so that it will never happen again. They’ve planned to build a house for them all, but they allow no door nor a window. 

Another aspect of the song is the great wall in Berlin. The “Iron carpet”. 
If you want to understand this aspect of the band, it’s important to know their background. The entire band grew up in the DDR, the side of Berlin which was heavily influenced by censorship and restrictions. It may or may not have been a protest against the life that they lived as young teenagers.

Ich tu dir weh

Time to talk a little about ich tu dir weh. As I've mentioned, these are my personal interpretations of the song and lyric, it's only a place to vent my obsession and empty some thought from my tiny brain.
To balance on the edge of the acceptable and the unacceptable is easily said a difficult balancing act. Therefore, I think it's quite rare for bands to do it, because it's risky for their career. But Rammstein has made this their career. People expect to be shocked. Which is why (What I think, at least) they made the Mein Land video the way that they did. But that will follow some other time! Rammstein balances perfectly and switches back and forth between these. One thing that I have always liked about Rammstein is that, if you care enough to analyze the lyrics, even just slightly, then you're instantly provoked to think. Provoked to make a choice, decide what you think of the topic. Because some of the topics really are carried out from the rough, cold world, topics that are left as taboos... just like Ich tu dir weh.

From what I have experienced in Rammstein, a lot of their songs carry out a double meaning. Such as this beautiful piece of music. It has been one of my favorite Rammstein pieces lyrically and musically, as you don't find too many Rammstein songs with a sort of catchy, swinging refrain. Don't get me wrong, all of Rammsteins songs have some sort of epic, raw and even erotic feeling to it. But this is different, in a lot of ways. And then again, it isn't. The song was banned from German television because of the controversial themes, and this song was the reason that the CD made it to "Over 18" in stores, not even on display. 
The video is made as a 'simple' performance video, the band soiled in flames in the background, and Till singing in front of them. What immediatly struck me about this, was the light that was shining from Tills mouth whenever he opened it. An LED light that had been placed in the roof of his mouth, from a chord that had been pierced through his cheek. The band insisted on, "Till, the audience is metres away, it will be perfectly fine for you to just have a fleshcolored chord, nobody will notice!" But he insisted in doing it this way, even though it could easily have been infected and caused a health risk for him. I think it emphazises the song perfectly. Because, this is what the song is about. To me, at least.

My beloved necklace <3

The soul is the light inside his mouth, the light shining through in his eyes. The body obeys.
While many people may interpret this as a song concerning BDSM relationships, I think it's sort of a tribute to the body. The soul is singing to the body. And what an odd tribute it is. 
"Nur für mich bist du am Leben." ; You are only alive for me. What other purpose does that body have, than to serve the soul? 
As a person with little, next to no confidence, I know exactly what Till attempted to portray. 
"Ich steck dir Orden ins Gesicht" ; I stick medals onto your face. In an attempt of making the body seem like it's worth something to the people around you. Medals symbolizes achievements, achievements portrays skills. For myself, and maybe Till, these medals could be piercings in an attempt to improve our appearance. But also all the nice things we try to outline about ourselves. 
The body is utterly devoted to the soul, it's really only a casket for carrying the soul around. The body is sort of an image of the soul, portraying what's inside. Sometimes, I don't feel that the two match. So I punish the body, I try to make up for the disappointment and shame. 

"Du blutest für mein Seelenheil
Ein kleiner Schnitt und du wirst geil" ; You bleed for the peace of my soul, a little cut and you're turned on. This is where the BDSM aspect plays up really well. Pain is a way of distracting yourself from what is, in reality, hurting you. Some of us have even learnt to connect pain and pleasure, which makes Rammstein such a wonderful band, no matter if you're the one who recieves the pain, or gives. 
"Ich tu dir weh
Tut mir nicht leid
Das tut dir gut
Hör wie es schreit" ; I hurt you. I'm not sorry. It does you good. Listen to it scream. 
I remember the first time I heard the song. The chills spread wide, and the tears crawled up in the corner of my eye, and under the lid. Someone had finally described what I couldn't. Till has a way of doing that, though. Because, this is a perfect example of what it is like to be in such war with yourself, that you find no other way than to distract yourself.... from yourself. 

The song makes so much sense to me. And it was a relief to listen to it. It still is, and it has helped me deal with myself in rough situations.
Now take the same lyric and interpret it from a BDSM point of view; it's simply the song from the sadist to the masochist. It gives the song another dimension, even erotic to me. It toys around with the theme of power, the power of being in so much control of another human being, that they would actually allow the other person to hurt them so much that they become disfigured, bruised and scarred etc. 

The song, like many other Rammstein songs, will give you the oppertunity to take whatever you want from the song, and use it in whatever mood you should find yourself in.
The live-act of this show must be experienced - If not in concert, then on youtube! I demand it! Rawr. 

The beginning!

Finally I got myself together to start this blog. This is solely dedicated to Rammstein, my thoughts and little scibblets about the band. Firstly I must state that this blog has nothing officially to do with the band, this is only my tiny space for my opinions and feelings. As most of my surroundings are close to ripping my head off because I fail to ever stop ranting once I get started. Yup!


Introducing myself and my relationship to Rammstein; My name is Kattie, I’m from Denmark and I’m 20 years old. Music is my passion, but I also love photography, drawing, singing and playing piano and guitar, writing, reading, baking and playing all sorts of geeky computer games. My passion for Rammstein started way back in 2001, when I casually walked past my 6 years older brothers’ room and heard the cellos of Mein Herz Brennt play, and felt myself oddly drawn to it. I sat down and listened throughout the entire Mutter album, and since then the obsession only went on and on. I thought that Mutter was their best of-album, but soon I was to find out that it was simply the standards of Rammstein. After learning German in school, Rammsteins music drew me to German culture and history, which has cleared my path to study History in University and perhaps German as my second subject. Rammstein functions as my source of inspiration when I write, draw, and a rare time or two create music.



In the later years I have become the newswriter on the Danish fansite, Sehnsucht.dk. I have tried to involve and devote myself as much as possible to the band, especially their singer and writer, poet; Till Lindemann. Poems from his collection “Messer”, may or may not (Yeah, right) occur here on the blog. Most likely, since I find myself reading one or two every day.

This blog will focus on my personal interpretations of lyrics, music, poems and atmosphere, nothing official unless I state it. Photos and videos will accompany my posts every now and then, and I will try to only update when I actually have something insolent to say, rather than mindless ranting about how much I love the band. Even though I am sure that the latter will happen more than I plan it will.
So here it goes! Lindemanns Engel is officially kickstarted. More to come very soon!