From Herzeleid · 1995 · Track 3
Weißes Fleisch
«White Flesh»
More from the album · Herzeleid
In context
It narrates an assault from the perspective of the person committing it, without an outside voice ever appearing to condemn what it describes. It is one of the first songs the band wrote and one of the most uncomfortable to listen to.
- Assault
- Unreliable narrator
- Censorship
- Origin
- Third song on “Herzeleid”, recorded in March 1995 at Polar Studios in Stockholm; it was never a single. It first existed with English lyrics under the title “White Flesh”, when the band was still torn between English and German, and reached the album with the working title “Fleisch”. Some early CD pressings included a version with beeps censoring certain words in the opening verse.
- What the band has said
- In 1999, after the Columbine massacre, the American press singled out Rammstein once it became known that the perpetrators wore the band's T-shirts. Rammstein responded with a statement offering condolences to the victims and rejecting any link between their music and what had happened. They did not cancel the tour: they kept playing in Guadalajara and Mexico City over the following days, and on 14 June performed in Denver, a few kilometres from Columbine.
- Live
- It stayed in the setlist from 2 July 1994 to 31 May 2011 — 306 documented performances, more than most of the album's singles.
Our reading
The title plays on a contrast that runs through the song: the victim's white flesh against the blood —black in the lyrics, not red— of the attack. It is the same technique the band would use again, more famously, in “Mein Teil”: lending its voice to the perpetrator and leaving the listener alone with the discomfort of hearing him.
The archive's interpretation, not an official account.
A narrator you shouldn’t trust
The title plays on a contrast that runs through the whole song: the victim’s white flesh against the blood of the attack — black in the lyric, not red. It’s written in the first person from the attacker’s point of view, with no external voice ever stepping in to condemn what it describes. It’s the same narrative technique Rammstein would use again, more famously, in “Mein Teil”: lend the perpetrator the voice and leave the listener alone with the discomfort of hearing it.
It was one of the first songs the band ever wrote, back when they were still deciding between English and German: it existed first with English lyrics under the title “White Flesh,” before the group settled on singing in their own language, and it reached Herzeleid under the working title, simply, “Fleisch.” Some of the earliest CD pressings included a version with beeps censoring certain words in the opening verse — an unusual act of self-censorship for a track that was never even released as a single.
The shadow that followed
In 1999, after the Columbine massacre, the American press singled out Rammstein — along with other metal and industrial acts — once it became known the perpetrators wore Rammstein T-shirts. The band responded with a statement offering condolences to the victims and rejecting any link between their music and what happened. Contrary to what the controversy might suggest, the band didn’t cancel its tour: it kept playing in Guadalajara and Mexico City in the days after the tragedy, and on 14 June that year performed in Denver, a short drive from Columbine.
Context
Third track on Herzeleid, recorded in March 1995 at Polar Studios in Stockholm. It was never a single, but stayed in the live setlist from 2 July 1994 to 31 May 2011 — 306 documented performances, more than most of the album’s actual singles.
Notes by Rammstein Colombia, for the purpose of analysis. The original lyrics belong to their authors and are not reproduced in this entry.