Das Ich are awesome. Really awesome, in fact. Easily the best industrial band around, ever. But why? Why are they so good that on my profile they have 300 more plays than the next industrial group? Or my partner in crime InfectedBrain, who has over 2000 Das Ich plays? I've been trying to figure out what makes them so good, original, and long-lasting, and I think I've got it.

1. NO DISTORTION
Listen to a Hocico song. Almost every part of the song will be distorted! The kick, the snare, the synth keeping the melody, the vocals... if anything at all will be clean, it will be the bassline, and that's IT. That gets tiring. It really does. And almost all industrial bands do it.
Now listen to a Das Ich song. In some songs, I can't pick out any distorted sounds! Does this make it less harsh? No. Less powerful? No. Better? It would seem so!

2. Unconventional beats
God I get so sick of that EBM "boom-chk-boom-chkchk" beat that is in every single song. Das Ich don't use that. Sometimes their beats sound almost tribal. It's really awesome, and much less tiresome.

3. Their style changes, album to album.
I own every album except Staub, so here I'll give a summary of the sound of each of Das Ich's albums.

1. Die Propheten. Sound: Gloomy yet powerful darkwave.

2. Egodram. Sound: The most conventional industrial album by Das Ich. Still a very unconventional sound! Uses very distinctive types of drum and synths not found on any other Das Ich album.

3. Antichrist. More relatively conventoinal industrial, but pushing both ends of the industrial spectrum: Das Dunkle Land is a gothic, ballad-y song, while Sodom und Gomorra is a fuzzy, distorted industrial assault. Again, unique synths on this album.

4. Lava (Glut). Sound: Symphonic! Synth strings abound, often making up the bulk of songs. And, get this - it still sounds harsh and danceable!

5. Lava (Asche). Sound: This album uses the most conventional synths of any Das Ich album, but the sound is still totally out there. Sehnsucht is a trance-y, house-y number that retains a strong industrial edge; Uterus is danceably gothic; Vulkan strays towards power noise (somewhat like Sodom und Gomorra from Antichrist and Chroma from Egodram.)

6. Cabaret. Sound: Gothic, symphonic, and theatrical all at once. Definitely a highlight of Das Ich's career. It's also very diverse, with the dark, danceable Zuckerbrot und Peitsche, the almost poppy Paradigma, and the aggrotech number Opferzeit.

See what I mine? They have a signature sound, yet it's ever-changing! It's industrial, but it's totally unconventional!

4. It's theatrical.
Yes. It is. Very.

Think I've captured what makes Das Ich so great?