Nietzsche and “Das Ich”
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more mature. Ice cold electronic sounds contrast with warm atmospheric ones,
providing the perfect sound track for Stefan Ackermann’s chilling vocal
performance. In some instances, Bruno Kramm sings as a kind of chorus to
Ackermann’s voice. Apparently, Das Ich combines in Antichrist what Kramm
and Ackermann have learned from experimenting over 10 years, producing eight
other successful singles during this time. In the following, we will examine
Antichrist's 10 tracks in order to find out more specifically what made
Nietzsche’s ideas in Antichrist so relevant for Bruno Kramm and Stephan
Ackermann.
The first track is “Engel” (“Angel”). It sounds like a typical Goth-club
dance song. Its minor tones are expected, and the dominant musical theme is
uncomplicated with a descending passage from the dominant key through the
sub-dominant and finally ending at tonic. The lyrics describe a demonic
invitation to dance. This death-dance, according to the lyrics, is considered the
last time Das Ich can resist “him,” probably referring to the Christian God. The
refrain simply states, “the angels of the earth are deaf, blind, and dumb,”
expressing the band’s apocalyptic view of the world. Interestingly, the last few
measures of this song sound much like an 1890s cabaret piece with the violin
solo and saloon piano-sounding melody. That this orchestration is a reference to
Nietzsche’s century is certainly not a coincidence.
The song “Keimzeit” (“Time of Germination”) (track 2) has faint similarity
to 17th century European church music. The synthesized instrumentation
represents a piano, chimes, strings, and an organ. There is a constant beat
throughout the piece which sounds like the snap of a whip. The lyrics mimic this
pattern as Stephan Ackermann’s voice cries out: “It drives me crazy that
everything is colorful/That all can laugh about nothing.”4 While Das Ich, in its
former song “Gott ist tot,” commented ironically on the indifference of society
by quoting over and over the popular saying “life will go on,”5 in “Keimzeit”
this irony becomes fury. Furiously, the band complains about the triviality of life
around them and seems to confirm Allan Bloom’s observation that in Western
society after God’s death “everyone spends his life in frenzied work and
frenzied play so as not to face the fact, not to look into the abyss” (143).
Towards the end of the song, referring to its title “Keimzeit,” the way of thought
changes to a bitter complaint about human beings’ mortality: “I must die, I will
be dead.”6 However, as pessimistic as this end seems, having to die without the
illusion to go to heaven, there is a positive, almost pantheistic touch when
Ackermann’s voice states: “Let germinate the tree, afterwards I will be
ready/The years counted, soon I will be decayed/Let germinate the tree, I want
to be its soil.”7 He will die, but nature continues to create life, using the singer’s
remains as the means for it. This song is an example of why critics call the
band’s philosophy konstruktiver Nihilismus (constructive nihilism) (Manegold).
We will discuss later why this positive touch fits well in Nietzsche’s line of
thought.