Mutter

Refining the style forged on 1998’s Sehnsucht, Rammstein’s third album captures the band settling into what they do best: rumbling industrial metal tinged with techno, opera and a little cabaret. Most surprising here isn’t the bombast (“Links 2 3 4” sets its beat to the stomping of boots), but the ballads, particularly “Nebel” and the title track, which builds from a fragile opening to a seismic orchestral climax.