Nitty Gritty

Did you read my LIFAD review on TG? If not here's the Ich Tu' Dir Weh bit:

The ecstatic pain of one of my favourite tracks opens with a waveform from Flake, which quickly drops into a (classic) hard riff via the drums. The rhythm is basic, but lively. It's like a heartbeat, and I don't just mean the primary beat. I also feel the little demi-beats that peek out from behind the main surge of an asymmetrical four chamber organ throbbing on and on and on...

That pulse is pervasive and relentless. The guitars, vocals, bass, and keyboards work to and around it. There is no getting away from it, and it is good. The song changes gear a few times, but the rhythm doesn't drop out. This track is riff-heavy, but is not lead by the riff. Schneider is most definitely the spine of this song. I feel it in my bones.

The chorus consists of beautiful voices undulating in and out of the rhythm. The choral melody is robust, if basic, and the layering of sound is rousing. This is a wall of sound done the right way. The verse contrasts by being fairly monotonal, which works very well.

Till pushes his voice through a range of textures. All work towards the feeling that he's trying to catch you out; lulling you slightly with full voice, all the while watching, and then pouncing with a switch to his trademark purr. The bridge is different again. He's almost in his knees, vocally speaking. There's an entreaty or pain in there, which I don't understand. I can't wait for a quality translation of these lyrics.

This is a seriously hot song though. It's oozing sex, but not in a nice wholesome way. No, that wouldn't be Rammstein at all. The sex dripping off Till's knuckles in this track is greasy, dirty, and white hot. There are plenty of promises in his voice…but they're almost entirely threats. His character is not being remotely friendly: he's definitely about to screw you in this unaffectionate but passionate encounter, but rather than being a lover you're so much meat caught in his headlamps, and it won't end well for you.

Got the idea?

Actually, I think this is the theme of the entire album. Ich Tu Dir Weh is just much more so. It's dark and hot and steamy, and I'm guessing the younger, more neurotic, heterosexual males reading this are shifting uncomfortably in their seats about now...

If you are listening to it properly it will leave you slightly breathless and entirely rapt. You may even experience the odd shiver up your spine. You'll never know quite how healthy or otherwise that is though...and there's no safety word should you seek escape.

Since I penned that I have read translatons and LILTed the song, so I will need to write a new review with the lyrics in mind at some point. That's not the focus here though. We're looking at the video for the song. The reason I have dredged up my review is the video backs up the music rather well.

I'll start at the wrong end, because the bridge and close are the most distinctively marked sections in the video. For the bridge, where Till is, vocally speaking, on his knees, the video pulls into a close-up on his face, and we get a good look at him.

His face is half in darkness, tears streak his cheeks, and those eerily pale eyes feature. The makeup is great. This is the makeup he should wear live. But the makeup is secondary to the eyes.

The eyes have made an indelible impression on me. I don't think they're achieved with lenses. I think his eyes have been desaturated and lifted in post. The saturation has definitely been messed with for the bridge itself, as the bloodshot lower eye is natural base colour with a bit of a boost, lightened slightly, while the surrounding shot has had saturation lowered. I think there's too much detail visible in the iris to be a lense too. Light simply doesn't behave the same when it's stopped at the front of the cornia. The iris is contoured and the crenelations are visible, so unless there's a new lense out that lightens the eye without opacity we're seeing Till enhanced by makeup and post production work, and nothing more invasive.

Interleaved with shots of Till are time-slipped shots of the rest of the band. They look decidedly demonic with the mad head movements and post effects. It's creepy, but effective.

You should note that they only light one side of his face (his right) during the bridge. When lighting switches to the other side they are mirroring the image. I expect the problem with the piercing is the reason for this. The scarring on Till's face makes it clear what they have done, and I'm honestly not sure why they bothered. The change in lighting direction doesn't add a damned thing to the sequence, and the mirroring is fairly obvious because Till is not a symmetrical man.

The bridge is a very emotive part of the song, but the closer that follows is pure climax, and the video goes in a frenzy of cuts, time-slipped spasms, and post effects of other kinds to convey that really nicely. Flake enveloped in lightning, Till 'swinging his dick' (dildo mic), Paul 'having what she had', etc. It all says the same thing. The explosion at the end is a little hackneyed and tacked on, but suits the orgasmic aspect.

Up until that point the song is all menace of the most sexual kind, and I now know that the lyrics bear that out in the most repellent way. The video is a little gentler, but still sweats sexual innuendo liberally. More on that in the next part.

Video provided by The Gauntlet

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