I don't speak my mother tongue

I had been listening to Dir En Grey and said I found it admirable that they continue to release albums in their native language without going for the English approach in order to boost marketability in the states which was something they continue to gain despite the apparent language barrier their music presents. A friend of mine who currently resides in Japan explained to me that the Japanese actually prefer when lyrics are sung in English. So I guess Dir En Grey’s adherence to their native tongue is a two fold example of a band’s ability to make good headway into the ears of foreign audiences.

Like Dir En Grey, Rammstein has also consistently stayed 100% native on their albums despite their English sung versions of ‘Hast’ and ‘Engel’ included in some versions of their breakthrough “Sehnsucht” as well as the Spanish sung track “Te Quiero Puta!” heard on 2006’s Rosenrot.

Although I know nothing of either language except the most common of phrases, to hear the language spoken in the form of poetry is something that I find myself caught up in and I can only wonder what sort of topics are being broached. While I could easily seek English translations for each band’s respective songs, I’d rather leave it up to my imagination as to what they could be professing through such passionate verses. (Except Rammstein, who have openly discussed their sexually charged subject matter)

I tend to focus a lot on tone when reviewing particular albums and in this case, the tone of how these unfamiliar languages comes across provides a world of intrigue into the unknown subject matter that would only be revealed to me by Wikipedia.

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Dir En Grey – Withering To Death (2006)

Having released 4 full lengths prior to their US breakthrough “Withering To Death”, Dir En Grey have managed to make some of the most intriguing and versatile heavy rock music I have heard in a long time.

I would have to say that Kyo’s singing brings the dynamics of the songs into full swing. A schizophrenic of sorts, he tends to be all over the map in his approach. There’s nothing like a diverse singer who sees his or her voice as a multi-faceted instrument, one they can use to manipulate the fabric of the music in order to really drive home the emotions that are playing out within the songs.

While each album is its own creature in the musical sense; “Withering To Death” just seemed to be the album that put all the pieces together just the right way. It was the album that saw their metal, pop, experimental, and progressive influences come together in cohesive way where as the following releases “Uroboros” and “Marrow of Bone” tended to stick to one particular angle. The albums are by no means without their strong points but there is a clear direction to those releases compared to the coalescing and unpredictable beast that is “Withering To Death”.

Basically, if there’s one album you were to start with, it would be the one mentioned here. All the others are equally important because they are all strong in their own right. I equally encourage everyone to check out “Kisou” as well.

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Rammstein - Liebe ist für alle da (2009)

Go ahead, do it, I know right now you’re saying aloud (in a deep German accent) “Du, Du Hast” but the fact of the matter is that following 1997’s “Sehnsucht”, Rammstein turned into some of the best mainstream song writers in the business today.

Friends of mine cannot take this band seriously due to the way that Till Lindemann passionately recites his sexually charged poetry. Lindemann’s approach which is subtle at times but always with a strong presence, gives this band the real ability to be so catchy. In a number of interviews with lead guitarist Richard Kruspe, people often ask him about Lindemann’s ability to sing the German language with such grace given the content and nature of the music. It basically becomes the topic of discussion and with good reason. His ability to map out patterns in such a fluent way with such a ‘hard’ language is what keeps this band memorable and gives life to their talented song writing.

I’m not here to profess that every Rammstein release is pure greatness, 2001’s “Mutter” was simply lame and the band was admittedly in turmoil at that time. In between albums the band would get together with a renewed sense of playing and the end product was 2004’s “Reise, Reise”.

Reise, Reise saw the band’s song writing mature greatly by taking their break core past and meshing it with their always apparent pop rock know how (their obvious love for New Wave being ever present as well). They would follow up “Reise, Reise” with “Rosenrot” in 2005 which was equal in quality if not slightly better simply based on the amount of hits you could pull from it.

I am posting last year’s “Liebe ist für alle da” because it is a great continuation of the band’s ever so catchy song writing. Richard Kruspe’s riffs never run dry. The fact they are so simple helps. To say this band is a monumental musical whirlwind would be pushing it, instead they are good at what they do, creating simple German pop hits using heavy elements while Lindemann’s sexually provocative lyrics make me believe that German is truly the language of Love, or just the language of very exploratory sexual fantasia. I would not want to run into that guy in a dark corner of an S & M shop.