Emigrate is the solo project of Rammstein guitarist Richard Kruspe, with him on vocals, Arnaud Giroux of Axel Bauer on bass and Henka Johansson of Clawfinger on drums.  Richard’s side project has been rumored since almost 2001 but the project only really took off in 2005 when Rammstein took a year off from touring and writing.  Emigrate was Richard’s chance to be the face of a band and really be in control.

Emigrate has a poppier, more melodic sound then Rammstein and has a more North American sound than Rammstein.  In addition the album is completely in English, with Richard doing all the singing.  Any time that Emigrate really starts rocking you can hear riffs straight out of a Rammstein album.  “Let Me Break” has a riff in the chorus that sounds almost exactly like “Stein um Stein” by Rammstein, but this never comes off as a cheap copy or repackaging of Rammstein’s riffs.  Richard adds his own undeniable style into the songs.  The guitar work and instrumentation on the album is fantastic, extremely high quality and mixed very well, but the downside of the band is Richard’s vocals and lyrics.  Originally Richard wasn’t going to be the singer in the band; he would have been better served finding another vocalist.  The pitch and timber of his voice are fine, but he tends to butcher or over pronounce words in English, understandable not being his native language, but it comes off sounding kind of cheesy.  Also he tends to often use too much distortion on his voice, which makes the problem areas even worse.  The lyrics are quite poor also; they are very generic rock vocals, no deep introspection or social commentary just very plain, very dull and poorly written.  The album has many solid high quality songs, the opener “Emigrate” is the heaviest track on the album and has a fantastic riff and the best vocal performance from Richard on the album.  “My World”, the song one of the songs on the Resident Evil: Extinction soundtrack, is another solid rocker, with a good chorus.  “New York City” is an interesting song, focusing on groove and melody more than an overpowering riff.  It also has the best lyrics on the album and another good vocal performance.  The best ballad on the album would be the closing track “You Can’t Get Enough”.  While the quiet nature of the song exposes the singing difficulties, it stillis the best ballad on the album, slow, melodic, with a great sing along chorus.

Overall Emigrate is saved by the very skilled musicians in the band, but the vocals and lyrics are lacking and they detract from the overall quality of the album.  A solid 3 stars for Richard’s solo debut, and a recommendation to improve his English of he intends to release another solo album in English.