The poetry of Rammstein
My kooky career path has led me to a place where two major aspects of my life have overlapped unexpectedly: speculative poetry and Rammstein fandom.
Horror house Raw Dog Screaming Press has published an English translation of Rammstein frontman Till Lindemann’s second poetry collection, On Quiet Nights (now available everywhere). Raw Dog commander-in-chief Jennifer Barnes asked me if I’d consider writing a blurb for the collection, and I was more than happy to! (After all, my wife and I paid to see the man set his keyboardist on fire and ride a giant, um, pink cannon that spewed white foam (ahem!) all over the front rows…)
It’s a handsome volume, with more than a little bit of the twistedness contained inside evident at first glance. (The same could be said of Till himself.)
Here’s the full text of my take on the book:
“Wry and rude, disturbing and droll, schneidend und schonungslos, Till Lindemann’s On Quiet Nights is no tome of quiet reflections. Admirers of the Rammstein frontman’s cynically humorous and gleefully raunchy lyrics will find those qualities in concentrate in these verses drawn straight from his darkly playful id. Lindemann pours blood, sweat, tears, and other bodily fluids into these lines, his yarns of lust, abuse and heartbreak brought to life by Matthias Matthies’s equally twisted illustrations. And yet, ever the trickster, Lindemann sows moments of beauty through the flood of sins, surprise gems like ‘So beautiful’ and ‘Silhouettes’ ensuring readers will never be able to predict what the next page brings.”
-Mike Allen, author of Hungry Constellations, three-time Rhysling Award winner
(My thanks to Shveta Thakrar for assistance with the German phrasing.)
I believe in truth in advertising, so I can offer an even quicker way to evaluate Lindemann’s poetry. Watch the following video (N!S!F!W!), from Lindemann’s first solo project, Skills in Pills. If you savor its over-the-top gross-outs, deeply disturbing imagery and singularity-black humor, you should buy the book right now. If you find the video too repellant to watch all the way through … maybe Till’s poetry won’t be up your alley.
#SFWApro
Horror house Raw Dog Screaming Press has published an English translation of Rammstein frontman Till Lindemann’s second poetry collection, On Quiet Nights (now available everywhere). Raw Dog commander-in-chief Jennifer Barnes asked me if I’d consider writing a blurb for the collection, and I was more than happy to! (After all, my wife and I paid to see the man set his keyboardist on fire and ride a giant, um, pink cannon that spewed white foam (ahem!) all over the front rows…)
It’s a handsome volume, with more than a little bit of the twistedness contained inside evident at first glance. (The same could be said of Till himself.)
Here’s the full text of my take on the book:
“Wry and rude, disturbing and droll, schneidend und schonungslos, Till Lindemann’s On Quiet Nights is no tome of quiet reflections. Admirers of the Rammstein frontman’s cynically humorous and gleefully raunchy lyrics will find those qualities in concentrate in these verses drawn straight from his darkly playful id. Lindemann pours blood, sweat, tears, and other bodily fluids into these lines, his yarns of lust, abuse and heartbreak brought to life by Matthias Matthies’s equally twisted illustrations. And yet, ever the trickster, Lindemann sows moments of beauty through the flood of sins, surprise gems like ‘So beautiful’ and ‘Silhouettes’ ensuring readers will never be able to predict what the next page brings.”
-Mike Allen, author of Hungry Constellations, three-time Rhysling Award winner
(My thanks to Shveta Thakrar for assistance with the German phrasing.)
I believe in truth in advertising, so I can offer an even quicker way to evaluate Lindemann’s poetry. Watch the following video (N!S!F!W!), from Lindemann’s first solo project, Skills in Pills. If you savor its over-the-top gross-outs, deeply disturbing imagery and singularity-black humor, you should buy the book right now. If you find the video too repellant to watch all the way through … maybe Till’s poetry won’t be up your alley.
Click to view#SFWApro