Tobias Rapp on Rammstein

Spiegel yet again, where Tobias “Easyjetset” Rapp has a delightfully cynical article on Rammstein finally getting their latest album (not quite) banned:

For the professional provocateurs it is almost a little offensive that a passé gay joke about homosexuals supposedly inserting hamsters into their bodies riled the censors more than earlier songs about the cannibal of Rotenburg and incest, or their Leni Riefenstahl video.

And he has the cultural situation of Neue Deutsche Härte precisely pinned down:

Rammstein, six East German musicians who played in various underground bands in East Germany, derived a successful business model from their understanding that there are no consequences for cultural rebellion in capitalism. Their recipe is simple: Cram sex and violence into a Dadaist vise (a technique that is probably most successful in “Pussy,” with lines like “Blitzkrieg with the meat gun”), add layers of loud guitar music and synthesizer noise, and gurgle out the words in a deep, throaty voice.

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