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Metal band Rammstein, singer Lindemann (centre): Clearly positioned in the Ukraine war
Photo: Jes Larsen/ DPA
Of course, a countdown has to count down one minute with digital digits when »Zeit« premiered on YouTube on Thursday at 5 p.m.
The song and video are the Berlin rock band's first new material since 2019, and a new album with the same title is scheduled to follow on April 29.
In the clip, shot by actor and musician Robert Gwisdek, the band around singer Till Lindemann, who are notorious for their martial, often provocative productions, once again find powerful, elegiacly staged images to illustrate the theme of the song.
»Time« is about transience, the impossibility of escaping death, clinging to the moment that should not pass.
At the beginning you see the uniformed band members drowning under water, while an aquatic plant climbs past them through the murky sea green towards the light.
The film runs backwards;
soon the musicians are occupants of a lifeboat that capsizes in a stormy sea, confronted with a towering figure in a long black robe, whose face flickers brightly under a hood: Grim Reaper.
The scenery, still running backwards, changes to soldiers and partisans fighting in a forest, the colors are toned and earthy, the uniforms are reminiscent of the Second World War, skirmishes in submarine warfare or in Eastern Europe.
With the war in Ukraine in mind, it's hard to imagine more contemporary pop culture images.
"Time/ Please stop, stop/ Time/ It should always go on like this," sings Lindemann with a dramatic presentation.
»But time knows no mercy / The moment is already over.«
Disturbing horror
In politically less turbulent times, one could read the song, which is rather ballad-like by Rammstein standards, as a general requiem, maybe even as a personal farewell anthem.
Already with the last, untitled album, rumors circulated that the group might soon disband.
In the light of the events, however, the images of the soldiers take on a different, more urgent meaning, which can hardly have been intended, as the production processes for such an elaborate video are then too long.
When at the end a farmer with a straw hat in warm autumn colors sees his little daughter running towards the eerie figure of death - and is unable to stop her, then the surging pathos-bombast of the music and the images create the father's despair as he falls in golden ears of corn to the Knee falls, that disturbing horror that Rammstein repeatedly unleashes with her videos, most recently in the outrageous homeland phantasmagoria »Germany« with concentration camp prisoners.
However, »Zeit« does not unfold their power by far.
Of course, there are still shocking images in the middle of the clip, beautifully black and white in the style of German cinema expressionism of the early 20th century: blindfolded mothers who have just given birth are lying in a circle around a huge, upward-flowing sand column of time - and Rammstein are doing obstetrics.
more on the subject
Till Lindemann in front of the Kremlin: Rammstein singer inspires at the military music festival in Moscow
In camp for oppositionists because of the Rammstein video: a pity, Mr. LindemannA comment Christina lever, Moscow
New Rammstein album: A great bit of horror show by Andreas Borcholte
Rammstein Music Video Controversy: Eine Fall by Arno Frank
Within an hour, the video had already been clicked 100,000 times on YouTube, perhaps also in Russia, where Rammstein has numerous ardent fans and has often played concerts in front of thousands of spectators in the past.
However, singer Lindemann recently canceled two solo performances planned for the end of the year due to the invasion of the Russian army in the Ukraine.
In the last few days he has been supporting the helpers at Berlin Central Station in looking after the refugees arriving from Ukraine.
A few months ago he sang the Russian heroic song »Lubimiy Gorod« (»Beloved City«) at a government-sponsored military music festival on Red Square in Moscow.
But contrary to their long-standing attitude of being politically irritatingly ambiguous, Rammstein have clearly positioned themselves on the war on their website in German, Russian and Ukrainian: »Rammstein would like to express their support for the Ukrainian people who are opposed to the fending off the Russian government's shocking attack.
At this moment we are particularly saddened by the suffering of Ukrainians.
Each member of the band has different experiences of the two countries;
all musicians have friends, colleagues, partners and fans in Ukraine and Russia,” the band wrote on March 4th.
"We recognize the despair that many Russian fans feel at the actions of their government, and we want to commemorate the humanity that Russian and Ukrainian citizens share."
At the moment everyone can probably agree on the incorruptibility of time and the great equalizer of death.
Time does not stand still for this always uncomfortable band either: Rammstein have probably never polarized as little as they do today.
