A single unlit match rests against a plain white backdrop. Straightforward, striking and utterly inflammatory, it is difficult to conceive an image that more succinctly sums up what makes German metal overlords Rammstein so great. Beyond its already iconic, economic cover art, however, the Berlin sextet’s magnificent seventh album feels like a heartfelt distillation of their defining qualities: the sex, the subversion, the need to provoke a visceral response. They might not be the type of men to talk too much when nothing needs to be said, but a decade down the line from 2009’s Liebe ist für alle da, this was the relief valve on 10 years of backed-up, boiled-down brilliance. Fittingly, things began with a tease. Cryptic clips began to appear online indicating that March 28 would ...
