jennifer_

Despite my disagreeing rather vehemently with you on some things political, I have, over the months, developed a certain positivity of opinion about you. The fact that you're a Rammstein fan rather cements that.

So my next question would be - into any other German language bands? I'd imagine they're easier to pick up in Britain than they have been for me in the US. (Though I've been lucky enough to be able to travel to Germany a few times, and picked up some music that way. Wish I'd known where to find decent used music shops, if such things are even around, though. The weakness of the dollar vs. the Euro decidedly limited my haul.)

Well, I think German language music is...if not niche, then at least a relatively small portion of the industry even in Germany. I pretty much had to ask the people at the stores I went to about bands they might recommend if I liked Rammstein, along with the occasional "Oh, that looks neat" moment of my own. And I certainly didn't buy anything I hadn't had a chance to listen to before I bought it. (The major German chain, Muller, was surprisingly user-friendly in that respect.) So it doesn't really surprise me that you haven't had much luck in that regard.

I wound up developing a substantial appreciation for several bands, although I veered well away from Rammstein territory by the end.

Megaherz is probably the closest, although their lead singer doesn't have nearly as deep a voice. I think I like the first two albums of theirs I bought the best. "Kopfschuss", and "Himmelfahrt". Although there are some really excellent songs on the latest, "5", also. I'm particularly fond of "Gott Sein '04".

Eisbrecher is also somewhat similar - I forget what exactly happened, but at least one of Megaherz's members broke off and formed Eisbrecher. Their self-titled album isn't bad, but I'm much happier with their latest, "Antikorper".

Then there's OOMPH!, which has been around longer than most of these bands. It's more standard rock than metal, and especially early in their career they tended to have a lot of songs in English. So I'm not quite as fond of them, but their last couple of albums are great. "Wahrheit Oder Pflicht", and "GlaubeLiebeTod". You'll want to find the video for the first song on the former, "Augen Auf". Demonic children for the win.

And there's Stahlhammer, a Viennese band that's changed members at least once per album, so their style has tended to shift, especially when they switched vocalist. Albums 1, 4, 5, and 6 feature the guy who formed the band, and if album 5 ("Stahlmania") is anything to go by, he's very fond of really heavy, driving metal. The guy who replaced him for albums 2 and 3 seems to have been more rap-influenced, although it's still more metal than anything. I've only managed to lay my hands on 3 ("Feind Hort Mit"), and 5, so I can't comment on the others. I really like "Feind Hort Mit" a lot. Some very creative songs there. "Stahlmania" is great for rocking out to, but isn't as musically interesting. And I really, really want to find a copy of album 2, because it has them covering MC Hammer, something I have trouble imagining.

I can also recommend some other bands that are in a very different style, but this is already long enough.