Rammstein
Live aus Berlin

THE REVIEW

Live aus Berlin, or, let's take what's ours.

I believe that the Sehnsucht Tour can be considered the artistic moment when Rammstein deservedly gained enough popularity and acclaim across America and Europe. After creating the albums Herzeleid and Sehnsucht, there is enough material for a legendary show.

August 22nd and 23rd, 1998, Berlin.

Strange guys with silver hair and strip club vests take the stage, one of them being the massive Till Lindemann who introduces spectators into his perverse and poetic world with the first timid notes of Spiel Mit Mir. They seem to have transformed into the suffering angels they narrate in Engel.

Fireworks, flames, and cages accompany the delirium of Tier and Bück Dich. The first deals with incest; the second is a declaration of not-so-positive intentions. The singer/pyrotechnician and keyboardist Flake stage a sexual assault on stage with a fake phallus squirting water onto the crowd (during the same period, the two spent a night in jail after repeating the same famous scene on the Family Values Tour).

However, Rammstein is not just about vulgarity and costumes; behind their appearance lies a desire to tackle complex topics, such as the fragility and hidden facets of the human soul —all of this, of course, without taking themselves too seriously, and I think it’s a skill only the greats can boast—.

Du Riecht So Gut, and its verses inspired by the novel Perfume bear witness to this.

"Madness is just a narrow bridge, the banks are reason and instinct. I chase you.

The sunlight confuses the mind, a blind child crawling forward because he smells his mother."

The compressed and full-bodied riffs of Kruspe and Landers (with guitars strictly tuned in C or D) and the martial drums of Schneider “Doom” run on the same tracks as Lorenz’s antics. He overshadows with his keyboard insights (closely linked to the phenomenon of Electronic Body Music) the sonic fabric on which the songs are born.

Du Hast is the song that sees the most participation from the public. Till addresses them, who in time, under the obsessive rhythm of the instruments, shout: "You, you have, you have me" (a verb that depending on the pronunciation becomes hate).

The atmosphere is scorching while the cold expressions of the six Rammstein create the theatrical element that will distinguish them for a long time.

Whether you like their raw style or not, these controversial and charismatic guys have written a piece of musical history. They and other names (Oomph! above all) are even considered pioneers of a genre called New German Art.

They have personality to spare, and they possess enough irony and persistence that their brand and their notes are undeniably recognizable. A double-edged sword at times.

The CD version of the live contains 15 tracks, unlike the DVD with the complete concert (except for the famous Bück Dich which is censored). Enjoy one of the most interesting live shows of the end of the century.