What Is Rammstein’s New Song ‘Zeit’ Really About?

You will have seen Rammstein’s new video for “Zeit” — the debut self-titled single from the German band’s 2022 album. However what’s the track actually about and what symbolism exists within the video? This is our day-one idea about “Zeit.”

First off, let’s try among the English lyrics to “Zeit,” which is German for “Time”:

Some ought to, some should not
We see, however we’re blind
We solid shadows with out mild

Rammstein could also be referring to Plato’s allegory of the cave, through which the thinker ruminated on the character of perception versus information. Primarily, think about your self chained to the wall of a cave in your complete life, going through the clean wall. As a hearth burns behind you, shadows solid themselves throughout the wall, however since you’re unaware of the fireplace’s existence, you understand the shadows because the beings themselves, slightly than a mirrored image of these beings. It’s a thought experiment that separates notion vs. actuality, together with how particular person perspective can dilute the reality of a scenario.

With that reference in thoughts, “Zeit” is concerning the cyclical nature of humanity. Within the “Zeit” video, the sands of time pour upon a bunch of blindfolded girls who’re giving start. However the sands of time additionally swallow the members of Rammstein, maybe depicting time because the bringer of each life and loss of life. The sands of time additionally encompass Rammstein’s caricature of the Grim Reaper, who can been seen holding the new child youngsters. Dying is inevitable, thus the Reaper has us from the second we’re born.

Dying comes into play on the very starting of the video, the place the members of Rammstein have drowned after being thrown off a rowboat in tough seas. The video then cuts to males within the throes of conflict being reduce down by enemy fireplace, then to a shot of kids enjoying conflict with tree branches as rifles, as in the event that they had been predestined to die combating for his or her nation.

After us there might be earlier than
Youth turns into hardship
We hold dying till we reside

The track’s lyrics additionally specific Until Lindemann’s craving to carry onto treasured moments. In “Zeit,” a farmer embraces a liked one because the Reaper seems. The tender second abruptly ends as the lady walks towards the Reaper. The farmer runs to cease the inevitable, however the Reaper takes his bounty, sweeping the lady into the sands of time. The person holds his beloved in his arms and appears up, realizing he’ll too, in the future, be swept into the sands. That is seemingly is a visible illustration of the track’s refrain:

Time
Please cease, cease
Time
It ought to at all times go on like this
Time
It is so stunning, so stunning
Everybody is aware of
the proper second

In our opinion, the important thing line in Rammstein’s ‘Zeit’ is:

I am mendacity right here in your arms
Oh, it might be perpetually
However time is aware of no mercy
The second is already over

Because the meme says, time is a flat circle. The cycle (start, conflict and loss of life) will repeat time and again as we’re certain by our flawed perceptions (Plato’s allegory of the cave) and our willful denial of the inevitable (the Reaper).

Try our idea on Rammstein’s “Zeit” above and click on right here for all the information on Rammstein’s new album.