Music that has changed my life 2

Ramms+ein, Live aus Berlin. Ramms+ein has been my favorite metal band for a long time. Live aus Berlin has been very important to me in many ways. The unrefined, loud and trancey sounds of elektro-metal have helped to canalise my energies, my raw, brutal and testosterone-induced energies. I dance and jam and sing to the German lyrics, something difficult to do, actually. Whenever I've felt down, uninspired, mad, angry, confused or just all over the place, Live aus Berlin has been there too, as a refuge, as something playful and exciting. I also love the performative ethos in Ramms+ein. They are a calculatedly manufactured piece of provocation, humor, homoeroticism, kitsch and glam. Their muscles and their festive use of all things testosterone are unmatched in the pop world. But there's also a sense of melancholy; of longing, yearning and craving in their lyrics. I can relate to that too. Deep inside, those boys want nothing else but to be loved and accepted. To me, they're every German: complicated, honest, truthful, tacky, brutal, determined, fleißig, and a bit too self-conscious. I love Ramms+ein. One of my fantasies is to fuck to this record, perhaps one day I will.

http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/42183/albums/album/196625/rid/5946576

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
(Posted: sep, 16 1999)

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB040403251443301584&sql=A9rcm963ohep6
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:1oge4j674wav

Review
by Steve Huey
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.