Live Aus Berlin Rammstein UNI/Mercury/Polygram, 1999 Buy it online Tracks 1: Spiel Mit Mir 2: Bestrafe Mich 3: Weisses Fleisch 4: Sehnsucht 5: Asche Zu Asche 6: Wilder Wein 7: Heirate Mich 8: Du Riechst So Gut 9: Du Hast 10: Bueck Dich 11: Engel 12: Rammstein 13: Laichzeit 14: Wollt Ihr Das Bett In Flammen Sehen? 15: Seemann Reviewed by Ian Grey	The problem with live recordings is one of context. Minus the substance-fueled communal vibe of an actual gig, a live Dead CD can become a self-indulgent bore, while Cheap Trick's Live at Budokan shows how having no context at all beyond a satchel of gold standard pop songs, played well, can result in a truly great album. Unfortunately, Rammstein's Live Aus Berlin --recorded before a swooning crowd in the band's home town -- falls into the former category. Without the group's outré visuals, one loses the primary context of this German industrial/metal band's performance: mainly, that they're really funny. Rammstein is perhaps best-known for its pyrotechnic-overkill -- vocalist Till Lindemann blowing up club ceilings with a Promethean crossbow/rocket launcher being an explosive highlight -- and uber morbid lyrics (this is the band whose breakthrough U.S. hit was "Du hast," which, translated, basically means "You hate me.") But on-stage, Rammstein is all about making fun of its mopey pretensions, an effect all but lost here. When guitarist Richard Kruspe leads a sing-along via a taped sample of a yapping raver, the result isn't satiric; it's disorientingly weird. The less-Rammstein-savvy will also be baffled when, seemingly apropos-of-nothing, the audience hoots with delight during the melancholic epic, "Seeman." The reason for the excitement is keyboardist Flake being hoisted into the audience in a tiny life raft. Not that the listener could possibly know this, as there are no liner notes or helpful photographs. Engineer Jacob Hellner, who produced the band's masterful studio effort Sehnsucht, misguidedly opts for a loose, rock-out approach for a band whose main attributes are precision power-chording, complex synth shadings and Lindemann's heavily-echoed Temple of Teutonic Doom vocals. While one admires the band's willingness not to gloss things up with overdubs -- guitar drop-outs and bum notes are lovingly reproduced here -- the sum effect is simply sloppy. Two more generically rocking efforts --"Buch Dich" and "Laichzeit" -- actually benefit from this raw approach, but if you want to check out the most musically adventurous band mining post-NIN territory, you'd do well to give this a pass or, even better, to acquire the video of Live Aus Berlin. | March 2000 Ian Grey's work has been published in Time Out, Icon, Fangoria and many other periodicals. 1998 saw the publication of his book, Sex, Stupidity and Greed: Inside the American Movie Industry (JunoBooks). He is currently at work on an epic novel dealing with sex, pop music, family and mass murder, based on two lines from a mediocre Depeche Mode song. Mr. Grey likes to think that he will be among the very first to do this.	Without the group's outré visuals, one loses the primary context of this German industrial /metal band's performance: mainly, that they're really funny.