Wer Bist Du?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Professional reviews
Wer Bist Du?

Studio album by Megaherz
Released	July 12, 1997
Genre	Industrial Metal
Length	52:16
Label	ZYX Music
Producer(s)	Alex Wesselsky Christian "X-ti" Bystron
All Music Guide link
Megaherz chronology
Herzwerk (1995)	Wer Bist Du (1997)	Kopfschuss (1998)

Wer Bist Du? (English: Who Are You?) is the first full album by German industrial metal group Megaherz, following the limited edition release of their first album, Herzwerk. The album included three songs from Herzwerk: Kröne der Schöpfung (originally a two-part song, here a single track), Negativ and Hänschenklein 1995 (remade as Hänschenklein Siebenundneunzig).

The first track, Gott Sein, is one of Megaherz's most famous, and considers the problems of being God, culminating in the refrain "Es ist nicht leicht ein Gott zu sein" ("It isn't easy being a god").

The penultimate track, Hänschenklein Siebenundneunzig, is based on a German nursery rhyme, in which Hänschenklein (which translates most closely as 'Little Hans', though this loses the double emphasis of '-chen' and '-klein', which both mean 'little') leaves home, causing his mother great grief. In the nursery rhyme, Hans returns home; in Megaherz's song, he is brutally murdered to the point that his mother cannot recognise him. The song shares the first line of the chorus "Aber Mutter weinte sehr" ('But Mother wept deeply') and ends with a brief drum solo accompanied by squeals of feedback and the whistling of the original nursery tune.

This song was the first of several Megaherz songs to be based on nursery rhymes, preceding Rapunzel on Kopfschuss, Windkind on Himmelfahrt (which echoed the story of Goldilocks) and I. M. Rumpelstilzchen on Herzwerk II. The more famous German heavy metallists Rammstein would begin a similar theme four years later with the track Spieluhr on the album Mutter,"Dalai Lama" on Reise, Reise, continuing with Hilf Mir and the title track on Rosenrot.