100 Greatest Songs of the 00’s #25 Rammstein – Feuer frei!

Released: 2002

Sometimes – rarely – there’s just too much back story to put into a few hundred words. In the case of Rammstein, the German sextet have found themselves becoming so notorious that retelling even a fraction of their history to the point where it would be meaningful to the whole is impossible.

Their press has been astounding, in 1998 following in reviewing their second album Sehnsucht Rolling Stone’s Chuck Eddy describing them as “East German sexual-torture fanatics that has been accused of luring the youth of Europe toward communist bliss.” A few months later an 11th grade photo of Columbine shooter Eric Harris wearing a band t-shirt surfaced. Two decades on they had hardly mellowed either, a Guardian piece in 2019 appearing bearing the title “Rock’s most dangerous band: why Rammstein’s incendiary retelling of history terrifies Germany.” Phew.

So who are they? Well, if you’re unfamiliar then an internet search engine is your friend here. The band sing almost completely in their native tongue and Feuer frei! is as gooder access point to their catalogue as any, lead singer Till Lindemann growling over an industrial-metal scree that brazenly fused art and the ridiculous. Controversy stalked them before and since, but clean, safe and normal will be the death rattle of music, one thing they seem to understand beyond any language barrier.