Industrial showmen fail to excite
'Keine Lust' (the German for 'No Desire') is the second single to be taken from current album 'Reise Reise' ('Travel, Travel'), following 'Amerika' (no translation necessary); a song notable for being the first the band had produced with lyrics partly sung in English.
With a stage show that now costs a stupendous £69,000 (per gig!), it's fair to say that Rammstein are a band built on the glitzy foundations of sheer spectacle. Guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe-Bernstein says of their exorbitant live performances that "it's not like you’re going to a rock show – you're going to the rock theatre!" This is all well and good, but I feel that what may be the source of their greatest strength is simultaneously their greatest weakness, because once you remove the flame-throwers, prosthetic phalli and stage pyrotechnics what you are left with is a distinctly mediocre band. Going to the theatre is one thing, listening to the soundtrack is quite another.
Middle of the road Industrial Rock is only partly to blame, seeming decidedly exceptional next to the ridiculous spoken word vocals; which are so cringe-enduringly bad and so completely out of place that you'd be forgiven for thinking it's a joke. Which I suppose, to a certain extent, it is.
By all accounts their live shows are nothing short of spectacular, and it's refreshing to see a band unashamedly camping things up and not taking themselves too seriously, but laid bare on disc it just doesn't do it for me. I'm afraid it's a case of style over substance, but at least the title is accurate: I have no desire to listen to this again.