Live Aus Berlin (CD - 1999)

Paul Landers, Oliver Riedel, Richard Kruspe.

Additonal personnel: Bobo (vocals).

Recorded live at Wuhleide Venue, Berlin, Germany on August 22 & 23, 1998.

Recorded live at Wuhleide Venue, Berlin, Germany on August 22 & 23, 1998.

As the title suggests, Rammstein's Live Aus Berlin captures the German alt-metal band in concert in Berlin, performing songs from Herzeleid and Sehnsucht. The live format gives an added punch to the band's sinister grind, particularly on performances such as "Spiel Mit Mir," "Engel," "Du Hast," and the group's namesake song. The VHS version of the set adds an extra track, "Buch Dich," but the DVD offers multiple angles on selected songs, interviews with the band, and the video for "Stripped." However, either version offers Rammstein fans a heroic dose of the band's intense live act. ~ Heather Phares

Recorded over two nights at the Wuhleide Venue, Live Aus Berlin demonstrates that Rammstein actually benefits from being heard in a live setting -- it recovers the immediacy and raw metallic bite that were somewhat toned down in the studio. Thus, the group sounds even more vicious, and the guttural German chanting that's one of the cornerstones of their sound takes on a more threatening aura. Even if fans are already familiar with this material, Live Aus Berlin might still prove a necessary purchase. ~ Steve Huey

On 1998's LIVE AUS BERLIN, Germany's Rammstein works an extremely vocal hometown crowd into quite a frenzy. The band specializes in brutal, chant-along bombast that's designed to leave people sweaty from fist pumping and hoarse from shouting. Recalling the early days of such bands as Killing Joke and Laibach, Rammstein layers overloaded guitars and throaty Teutonic snarls over a massive, machine-like rhythm section guaranteed to thwart all attempts at crowd control.

The bulk of the material is drawn from Rammstein's first album, HERZELEID, though six tracks are drawn from the band's U.S. debut, SEHNSUCHT. The b-side "Wilder Wein" is also unearthed. Standouts include the Wagnerian swell of "Du Riechst So Gut," a vicious track memorializing a 1988 disaster at Rammstein Air Force Base that has served as the band's theme song. "Bestrafe Mich," "Bnck Dich," and "Wollt Ihr das Bett in Flammen Sehen" are especially brutal. Topping it all, there's the (unintentionally?) chilling sound-spectacle of several thousand kids singing along to the chorus of "Weisses Fleisch," a first-person narrative from the point of a rapist. minimize