From Zeit · 2022 · Track 5
Zick Zack
«Zigzag»
More from the album · Zeit
In context
A send-up of the obsession with cosmetic surgery, sung by people who are exactly the age of the client it describes.
- Cosmetic surgery
- Ageing
- Self-parody
- Origin
- From “Zeit” (2022). In the video the band plays to a small audience of older fans, dressed as an eighties hair metal act, with wigs, false teeth, silicone implants and tattooed-on facial hair. Till's character is loaded with Botox and his face keeps sagging until he leaves the stage.
- The German key
- The title imitates the zigzag of a scalpel cut; it is onomatopoeia before it is a word.
- What the band has said
- The band did not accompany the song with a statement.
- Live
- In the setlist since the 2022 tour.
Our reading
What makes it work is who sings it: men past fifty who have spent thirty years putting their bodies on show on stage. It isn't mockery from the outside. It pairs with “Zeit”, from the same album: one asks time to stand still, the other laughs at those who pay to pretend it has.
The archive's interpretation, not an official account.
Original (German)
Zick zack
Translation
Zigzag
Verse cited for the purpose of analysis.
The scalpel
The song mocks the obsession with cosmetic procedures: the rising desire to go under the knife to retain youth and maintain an acceptable appearance while ageing. The title imitates the zigzag of the incision.
What makes it work is who is singing it. Rammstein recorded this as a band of men past fifty who have spent thirty years putting their bodies on stage. It is not mockery from outside: it is people in the exact age bracket of the customer they describe.
It pairs with “Zeit”, from the same record. One asks time to stop; the other laughs at those who pay to pretend it did.
The video
The band plays to a small audience of elderly fans, dressed as an eighties hair metal outfit. Each member appears with exaggerated cosmetic alterations: wigs, false teeth, silicone prosthetics, tattooed facial hair. Till’s character is loaded with Botox and his face sags progressively through the performance until he has to leave the stage.
It is physical, almost clownish humour from a band that usually operates by intimidation. And the closing joke is the song’s: the cure for ageing is more frightening than ageing.
Context
From Zeit; single released 7 April 2022.
Translation and notes by Rammstein Colombia, for the purpose of analysis. The full original lyrics belong to their authors.