Germans Reise to new heights...
Rammstein never get old. By that, I mean if you listen to their older albums and then listen to this one, you can tell it's the same band, because their style of brilliance has never got old. But what has evolved and grown over time is their style, their skill, and their strangeness.
Rammstein were never your generic metal band, from the first they were always looking at ways to bring pure chaos into every song. With Mutter, there were a few songs, such as "Feuer Frei!" where Rammstein have the ferocious power that only metal can generate coupled perfectly with a unique sound. However, I feel that Mutter was very hit-and-miss, but that simply isn’t the story with Reise Reise.
Everything here is well done. The actual music you hear is well written, well performed and well produced. You can tell from listening that there is no other band and there probably won't ever be another, who could cope with this music, because we've all seen so many bands try to be this original and go to pieces over it.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the song that stands out here is Amerika, for which I must award Rammstein the unofficial Room Thirteen "Best Lyrics Ever" award. If you only plan to hear one Rammstein song, make sure it's this one, because you will be laughing so much by the end of it you'll buy all their albums, and be much happier for doing so.
The other song which stands out of an already exceptionally good pack is first single track "Mein Teil". Having already racked up a number two slot in both Germany and Spain, Mein Teil is possibly the most Rammstein song you can get. It sums up everything the band are about in just four and a half minutes.
So, overall, this album is great. There's nothing on here you won't enjoy listening to. It doesn't quite have the memory value that Mutter had - you'll have forgotten about this in two years time, but by then Rammstein should be ready to release their next opus, and you can drool all over again...