Album Review: Lindemann - Skills In Pills - 2015

Genre: Industrial Metal
Country: Germany
Year; 2015

Tracklist:

1. Skills In Pills
2. Ladyboy
3. Fat
4. Fish On
5. Children Of The Sun
6. Home Sweet Home
7. Cowboy
8. Golden Shower
9. Yukon
10. Praise Abort
11. That’s My Heart

And so… Rammstein releases a new album. Yes, it is, and don’t fuk with me telling it’s not. It sounds like Rammstein and the lyrics are the ones from Rammstein, so it must be it… Even if the band is called otherwise, even if it’s not composed by all Rammstein's members, even if all the songs are in English, it is fuking Rammstein!

So, how good is this new Rammstein album? Better than the previous four ones, no doubt. However, it's not as good as the three or maybe four firsts Rammstein's albums. So yes! Go and pick this one… if you can accept a work a bit more than mediocre. 

I've already talked about the single “Praise Abort”. I was quite disappointed at that time because of the lack of new or good ideas. I believed then, that the upcoming album was going to be shit. I was, however, wrong. The album is far superior than the load of crap I was expecting, but it’s not a gem neither. 

This work doesn’t bring anything truly innovative, nor in its composition, lyrics, nor in its structure. Maybe the only distinctive element is the relevance of synths and other industrial metal instruments (relevance that seemed a bit forgotten since Mutter), and the use of some vocal choruses (also synths). Just listen to the song “Cowboy” and hear it for yourself. The album structure is one proper of any pop song (AABA), so you won’t find anything that excels here, besides the sense progression that Rammstein always imprints on their songs . Of course, as it's usual to the band, the composition lacks any technical brilliance. 

The participation of Peter Tägtgren in this project isn’t shown very much. It really seems like this is a Lindemann's solo project, and not a band. That's a shame. One could think that the ex-Hypocrisy and Pain member would contribute with some element from those bands… but no.

Throughout the eleven full tracks that compose the album (no coda or outro here), through the lyrics, the band seems to try too hard to make a strong impression on the listener. That’s not a bad thing. In fact, that must be a common goal to all lyric writers. The bad and tiresome thing is the way Lindemann tries to achieve this goal. Graphically, it is like watching time and time again the video from the single “Praise Abort”. Thus, it tends to get disgusting. After hearing ten songs alike in both lyrics and rhythm, it can get boring. That’s why the change of pace marked by the tracks “Home Sweet Home” and “That’s My Heart” (the album’s best one) is more than welcome.

The sound is good enough for any respectable studio album, but it appears to be a bit over-saturated or near saturated always. Because of the extensive use of background synths, it’s almost “atmospheric”. The guitars, synths and drums sound like they should on an industrial metal album. It is not superb but more than OK.

This album shines thanks to its catchy tunes, which are present in every song. That’s fundamental to any song, and Rammstein achieves it very frequently through this work.

Paradoxically, Skills In Pills seems more faithful to Rammstein’s style than Rammstein itself, and better also. It’s a lengthy album, with a respectable quality, but that doesn’t worth the almost $15 that they are asking for.

Finally, the worst song: “Praise Abort”. Why they decided to make it a single? It’s a mystery. Maybe it was just because it resembles so much to “Pussy”, which was a big success as a single.

Rating: 7/10