Rammstein
Rammstein (Demo)

We are in 1994, and six musicians, as well as longtime friends, after founding a band and winning the “Berlin Senate Metro” contest, decide to release in a very limited number of copies an audiocassette containing the pieces composed up to that point.

The band in question is called “Rammstein”, and the aforementioned musicians are Richard Kruspe, Till Lindemann, Oliver Riedel, Christoph Schneider, Paul Landers, and Christian Lorenz.

This demo is very important for every fan of the East Berlin sextet, as it is the first official testimony of the band itself.

Despite the group, at the time of recording, having been founded only a few months earlier, the tracks on this demo appear well-conceived, and the instruments blend well together. The cassette starts with “Feuerräder”, a track with a dark and fast sound, characterized by Till's distinctive voice, which appears raw but sufficiently in tune. It continues with “Hallo Hallo” (the track would be reintroduced in the first album “Herzeleid” under the name “Das Alte Leid”, along with the songs “Rammstein” and “Weißes Fleisch”, present on the demo), perhaps the weakest track of the album, which, despite its length (about 6 minutes) appears “empty” and predictable. In the subsequent “Weißes Fleisch”, probably the best song of the demo and the “Herzeleid” album, all the characteristic elements of the sextet's sound are present: hard and sharp guitars, Till's distinctive voice, and the well-executed electronic inserts proposed by Lorenz.

Immediately following is “Rammstein”, the first song composed by the band, dedicated to the massacre of the same name, characterized by an industrial march and a long solo at the end. The last track on the cassette, “Schwarzes Glas”, stands out for its pronounced electronic component and the speed imposed by Schneider's drums.

In conclusion, we can affirm that this demo is a convincing display of talent by young musicians from East Berlin at the time, who did not know what American and English-speaking music was, and today are one of the best realities of German and international Industrial Metal.