Rammstein Rammstein

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 still prove a necessary purchase.

Anyone familiar with the industrial metal band's dark sense of irony should take one look at the title of Rammstein's 2009 album Liebe Ist Für Alle Da ("Love Is There for Everyone") and conclude that this one is a mean monster. Combining the tightness and punch of their 1997 album, Sehnsucht, with the musicianship and elaborate textures of their later work, Liebe Ist Für Alle Da is a grand achievement, skillfully dividing its time between razor sharp metal rockers like "B********," or the opening theme song "Rammlied" and nostalgic cabaret pieces that conjure the spirits of Weil and Brecht at a goth club. The best of the latter is the naked and haunting closer "Roter Sand," but little touches of a sinister yesteryear are everywhere, like the fake vaudeville music in "Haifisch," or the soundtrack strings of "Wiener Blut," which are eventually overcome by a guitar-crunching juggernaut…

Primarily recorded during Rammstein's 2005 world tour, Völkerball presents the outlandish German industrial-metal band charging through a scorching live set. In addition to successful European singles such as the pummeling "Mein Teil" and the surprisingly melodic, U.S.-skewering "Amerika," the group also performs its sole American hit, "Du Hast," making for a concert document that is sure to please Rammstein's devoted international following.

To date, Rammstein haven't been able to equal the excitement and power of their breakthrough 1997 album, Sehnsucht, and while Rosenrot suffers that fate, there's an EP's worth of brilliance and one track that towers above them all. Just as exciting as their massive hit "Du Hast," "Te Quiero Puta!" is a glorious blend of the group's usual Teutonic crunch and mariachi music that earns the exclamation point in its title. It's loco to hear Rammstein with bright horns and Latin vocalists and just about as odd to hear them with Sharleen Spiteri - lead singer for the classy pop act Texas - whose sweet and somber vocals make "Stirb Nicht Vor Mir (Don't Die Before I Do)" sound very dreamy, very Nightwish. The out of control "Zerstören" and "Benzin," with its biting social commentary on the world's addiction to oil, are the final two tracks for the hypothetical four-star EP, since the rest of Rosenrot sounds a bit too formulaic…

Rammstein's first album was about what was to be expected from a bunch of Germans who happily grew up on everything from Skinny Puppy to Depeche Mode to Laibach and back again, not to mention plenty of skull-crushing metal straight up. Precisely brutal and often brilliantly arranged - the band aren't per se inventive, but they bring everything together to make something astonishingly radio-friendly out of something that isn't necessarily - Herzeleid in particular is the logical conclusion of KMFDM's self-referential electro-metal. The band freely invokes its own name throughout the way that group did in its songs – the final tune is called "Rammstein," to top it all off - and the riffs readily connect the dots between the older band's clipped guitar bursts and their even more compressed nu-metal equivalents…

After an interminable decade-long absence from the studio, German metal titans Rammstein rekindled their flame, igniting a new era with their seventh effort, RAMMSTEIN. Celebrating the band's 25th anniversary, this precision attack is both a satisfying return to classic sounds and a fresh vision of the band that remains triumphant and, most shockingly, even elegant and graceful…

With the first Rammstein album you hear, it's hard not to be slightly amazed by the sheer chutzpah of it all. The German lyrics, the prog rock tendencies, the classic metal guitars, and the ridiculous basso profundo vocals - you either fall for it, spurn it, or are utterly bemused by the extremeness of it all. Unless you're a fanatic, it wears a little thin the second time around. And for most listeners, Mutter, the group's third album and sequel to their inexplicable commercial breakthrough Sehnsucht, will be the second time around since it's their first release since becoming a high profile act. Thing is, if you've heard that record, you've pretty much heard Mutter, since all the trademarks are in place, without much noticeable variation…

After an interminable decade-long absence from the studio, German metal titans Rammstein rekindled their flame, igniting a new era with their seventh effort, RAMMSTEIN. Celebrating the band's 25th anniversary, this precision attack is both a satisfying return to classic sounds and a fresh vision of the band that remains triumphant and, most shockingly, even elegant and graceful. RAMMSTEIN stands tall alongside the expansive scope and experimental textures of early-2000s releases Mutter and Reise, Reise, stepping aside from the blitz of their preceding effort, 2009's Liebe Ist für Alle Da. As Christoph "Doom" Schneider's drums pummel, the corrosive twin-guitar attack of Richard Z. Kruspe and Paul Landers provides a fresh batch of addictive, headbanging riffs.