Rammstein Essentials

Since starting out by setting fires on Berlin stages decades ago, Rammstein have defined and refined what “industrial metal” means. As Germans, the technological ramifications of both sides of that genre came naturally—not just lock-stepped mechanical beats and portentous weight-lifter riffs, but consonant-crunching gutturals, Falco-like rapping, gorgeously gloomy orchestrations, choirs out of the medieval church and bombastic opera crescendos indebted to Richard Wagner. Yet they've kept humour and hooks in it all, too—and, at times, even traditional rhythms from the Mediterranean and Mexico.