Product Description

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Media Type: DVD
Artist: RAMMSTEIN
Title: LIVE AUS BERLIN
Street Release Date: 04/04/2000
Domestic
Genre: HEAVY METAL

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13900 in DVD
• Brand: RAMMSTEIN
• Released on: 2000-04-04
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, Live, NTSC
• Original language: English, German
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, German, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds

Amazon.com
Berlin's industrial metal sextet Rammstein was already provocative when the band nabbed unwanted U.S. press attention as favorites of the two young sociopaths behind 1999's tragic high school shootings in Columbine, Colorado. This concert video, expertly produced during a huge outdoor concert the previous summer, won't dissipate the tension between Rammstein's fans and social critics looking to find the links between such violence and the band's intense, sweeping music, especially on this uncensored edit of their nearly 100-minute set.

Sonically, the band lashes the clangorous legacy of industrial countrymen like Einsturzende Neubaten to the simpler, head-banging power chords of metallurgists like the Scorpions, Rammstein's front line of rasping, squealing guitars laced with synthesizer and pummeled by splashy drum work. The music's focal point is vocalist Till Lindemann, who half-sings, half-bellows in a guttural bass that makes most metal men sound like countertenors, an effect underscored by Lindemann's beefy, muscular physique as he stalks the stage. His macho growl and restless movement contrast with the largely motionless postures of his bandmates, which include a vampiric guitarist, a rail-thin keyboardist, and an even more spectral, bald bassist whose black-taped skull nods to S&M couture.

A massive stage set that's one part Borg, one part Blade Runner, onstage pyrotechnics, and piercing klieg lights that sweep the vast crowd pointedly synthesize Third Reich with apocalypse as rapturous fans sing along with "Du Hast" ("You Hate") or "Heirate Mich" ("Worship Me"). When the mesmerizing sturm und drang finally pauses, it's due to a graphic, simulated homosexual rape (on "Bueck Dich") that earns this tape its advisory, and will repulse all but the most ardent fans. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

Great DVD for fans of Rammstein
Considering everything you get - 17 tracks of live music (3 with 5 additional camera angles to choose from), 14:30 of interviews, 5.1 Dolby Digital sound (the Amazon info doesn't say it's there, but it is), and an additional hidden track for the controversial "Stripped" video (as previously mentioned here, hit 23, then Enter on your remote at the main menu) - fans of Rammstein can't afford not to have this DVD.

The "Buch Dich" track has been edited out of the DVD version, but this is not a censored DVD; it's just the only one available, at least in Region 1 NTSC format. The only way to see "Buch Dich" is by picking up the VHS tape. If you're trying to decide between the two formats, I'd say the DVD is tops, hands down. I have both, and since I've gotten the DVD I haven't picked up the VHS even once. The video and audio are superior to that of the VHS, and the VHS doesn't have any of the additional features you can find on the DVD.

Speaking of video and audio, they're both pretty good, but not great. There's some minor artifacting in the video due to the onstage smoke effects combined with the fact that this is just a single layer disc. The 5.1 Dolby Digital sound seems to be a bit lacking in bass (though the band never has been all that heavy on it) and the rear channels mostly only play crowd noise. But again, this DVD is definately the best way to enjoy a Rammstein concert, aside from actually being there.

Even if you have the VHS version.....
....you should definitely consider purchasing this concert on DVD! This version contains some additional treats NOT included on the VHS version. However, in all fairness, there is one song missing from the DVD - "Bück Dich" has been omitted. This song is included on the uncensored version of the VHS (USA release and Euro PAL format). The following is a summary of some of the special inclusions on the DVD version:

Multi camera shots of the individual members of Rammstein for the songs "Tier", "Du Hast" and "Rammstein". An interview is included (translated sub-titles) with clips from all Rammstein videos. A contest to challenge your Rammstein knowledge (consisting of 140 questions) is playable from your CD-ROM using Windows. As a bonus track, the entire video for "Stripped" is included.

Convinced? I hope so. Because if you have never experienced Rammstein Live - this is the next best thing to actually being there!

Mein Herz Brennt
Because I live in a place where concerts, especially those by European bands, are virtually impossible-- I had never seen Rammstein actually performing before I watched this video. I have no cable, and I have no MTV. At this point, I have been able to acquire music videos...but Live aus Berlin was my first experience beyond a CD. And I think that I fell in love the night that I watched it.

Rammstein is a lot of things, but one thing they are not is boring. It is a great shame that a lot of American music fans cannot appreciate this video because the intelligent lyrics are lost on those who do not understand them. The music is good-- yes-- but not surpassingly so. It is indeed moving and deep, but it's the lyrics, the fact that much of them are in archaic languages and rife with allusions to great poetry and culture; and, of course, the intensity with which they are performed that makes Rammstein truly great.

Firstly, I do not find them at all offensive. Even their sexual antics on stage are silly at worst, not upsetting, and they generally are amusing and witty. The lyrics don't strike me as unpleasent. Yes, they sing about unusual themes that are not generally accepted by the fragile norm. People don't like to be rattled into thinking a little harder. People don't like the suggestion that aesthetics can also lie in what they themselves find disturbing; like pain, fire, and yes, even death. But we all need a little disturbing. We have grown too static in our thinking. Our only disturbances are typically of the annoying-- yowling bands that spit youthful anger and hate at us-- not deep, macabre suffering tinged with irony and dark humour. Sometimes what is misunderstood about Rammstein is that a lot of Rammstein's songs are sarcastic social commentaries; not personal opinions. Weißes Fleisch is not promoting rape or assault-- it's expressing the horror of such mindless violence. After all, the mere mention of it in a song unnerves people! The problem is, so much time is wasted in attacking Rammstein for daring mention what people don't want think about on their own...that time could be spent in doing something about the very real issues of violence, rape, and racism. It doesn't go away if you ignore it.

Rammstein claims to want to cause a little trouble, but I don't think that that explains everything about them. My own mother (yes, I'm one of the restless 17's) dislikes them because she finds them frightening. But fire is an expression not just of destruction, but of passion; and also of love. It is the raging of unstoppable, immense emotion-- like the sun, it can warm the heart or it can burn down to the bone.

And I am not comparing Rammstein only to the other goth bands and rock bands and metal bands of this era, but also to the bombastic glory of Beethoven, the youthful madness of Wolfgang Mozart; and even to the melancholy operas of Verdi. All these things are not Rammstein-- but Rammstein do share one thing with the masters of music: majesty.