h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just one year after the world saw the release of Reise, Reise, Rammstein released another album.

It is called Rosenrot. The title translates as "roseate" - red as a rose. In an ironic twist, the artwork of the album is anything but red: everything is shades of blue. (Rumor has it that this is, actually, exactly the artwork that was used on the Japanese edition of Reise, Reise, so keep your eyes open for what they will do about the Japanese edition of Rosenrot...)

Rosenrot consists of, as might by now be expected, eleven songs. The underlying mood of the entire album is one of sadness. Themes touched on by this album include:

- Love (yes, love, not sex), for example "Wo bist du", which translates as "Where are you"
- Sex (yes, mostly in the form of unrequited love), for example "Feuer und Wasser", which translates as "Fire and water"
- Loneliness (yes, this is actually emotional), for example "Stirb nicht vor mir/ Don't die before I do"
- Destruction (yes, we have been waiting for this), for example "Zerstören", which translates as "Destroying"
- Nihilism (yes, a good share of that, too), for example "Spring", which translates as "Jump"

The new album has quite a few surprises to offer. There is one song entirely in Spanish ("Te quiero puta"), which mixes Rammstein style with cliché Mexican trumpets. A real suprise is the aforementioned "Stirb nicht vor mir/ Don't die before I do", which is a collaboration with Sharleen Spiteri, the lead vocalist of the band, Texas. The concluding song of the album, simply called "Ein Lied" ("A song"), is a selfreflexive piece about the role Rammstein plays in people's lives: "We are the servants of your ears".

All in all, this album does not seem to have the oomph of, say, Mutter or Herzeleid. It relies more on the interplay of lyrics and music than on sheer and brute musical force. Many old fans might miss the energy of fast riffs being thrown at you. Many people may come to like it for its mix of intelligent, almost expressionist lyrics and gothic-style near depression that is countered by bits of humor deriving from the lyrics.