Rammstein: Live Aus Berlin : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

In which today's quintessential horror-rock melodramatists give something back to their hometown, their boyhood burg being that complicated ground zero of political strife and cabaret decadence, Berlin. As scapegoats for youthful violence stateside, Rammstein make very bad culprits: Their blend of big-footed Led Zeppelin riffs and chilly Kraftwerk electronics in a massive metal frame is cartoonishly earnest, danceable goth misanthropy infused with macho romanticism. But Rammstein aren't too solemn to put on a slamming live show. In addition to their vaunted onstage antics -- sadomasochistic, mostly indulging a cathartic desire to see lots of stuff on fire, including singer Till Lindemann -- Rammstein's pacings swoop the audience into their web of passion and goofball doom, with sing-alongs, crunching intros and Lindemann at his menacing best, rolling his r's with fiendish delectation. Energized by the crowd, Rammstein are big, hard, totally entertaining and funny as hell. (RS 821)

ARION BERGER