Pain Speaking

Ich Tu' is all about pain. This is the stuff of Lindemann.

He's very good at putting pain into words, and it's hard to quell the mental images that bloom across the mind once comprehension dawns. It's like standing in an empty space, while monstrous and velvety-dark flowers form and open before your eyes. While I've got extensive experience of pain* and am not a huge fan of it I can't help but admire his ability to convey it through his verse.

ITDW is ostensibly about an S&M relationship, but it could be about self-flagellation, self-harming (suggested on the Herzeleid forum), and/or about self-loathing. The imagery used is repellent and violent, and the character shows distain and no respect for his partner, be that himself or another party. It's all pretty vile, and it's accompanied by wonderful music and vocals, which is a stunning contrast.

Superficially, if you don't understand the lyrics, ITDW is a raunchy romp. It's fun and frisky musically, and smoking hot through to the vocals. There's no ugliness at all, though there is definite threat, because the ideas conveyed by the lyrics are not carried in the music. All the threat takes the form of naughty promise, and the pain-mongering is invisible.

Then the meaning transforms it into something much darker and more sinister. This is where the idea of lyrical incomprehension as a positive comes to the fore. I had a strong positive impression based entirely on the song, completely uncoloured by the imagery in the words, and that persists, though I know now what it's all about. I retain the initial enjoyment unmarred by the subject-matter.

I love this song. It doesn't hurt one bit.

[discuss]

* not voluntarily - I don't get my kicks that way...not that that's any of your business.