There’s a lot to say in this communication but also at the same time every song on here is covered in another communication where I review the studio album. So, there isn’t a lot to say. Except, Rammstein have the best fucking sound I have ever heard live. The show is amazing but the sound shocks me at how good it is. I’ve seen them three times and haven’t had a bad experience. Wembley Arena, Donnington, and Milton Keynes Stadium, every time it was an amazing experience and I loved it. This is a band who knows how to put on a show and knows how to create an album. See it, love it.
Sehnsucht – Rammstein
Look, you know what you are getting with a Rammstein album. Excellent, hard German industrial metal – or whatever genre the posh people think it is – which I’ve just checked and it is Neue Deutsche Härte apparently. This is Rammstein’s second album. I first heard this band in the early 2000s when a friend, Sara, gave me two albums because she had to many and she thought I would like it. I mean, she wasn’t wrong. This band is one of my all time favourites.
What you need to know is that you should have all the Rammstein albums and you should play them regularly. Don’t think too much about the lyrics, I’ve found it’s best not to know. This band is amazing.
This album has Engel, Du Hast, and Bück dich all massive songs with excellent live performances.
It would appear that many very good albums begin with an S. Or it’s that many decent album titles just happen to begin with an S. I’ve found in life it’s often helpful to think about the direction of causality.
Rosenrot – Rammstein
Look. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it: Rammstein are amazing. I love it. I can’t get enough and it just stuns me all the time. The thing is, and this is mentioned elsewhere within these communications, I forget song names. Bands I have grown to like over the last twenty years or so, Rammstein included, have suffered from a case of me not having the time to stare at the album packaging. It’s worse these days as I rarely buy physical copies of music and rarely look at the actual titles of songs I hear. This along with a propensity to not really listen to the lyrics combines to mean I don’t know song titles. Unless the chorus is the title over and over.
I know the songs and I know which ones I like but naming them? Almost impossible.
Just go and buy everything by Rammstein. You’ll not regret it.
Reise, Reise – Rammstein
Looking through all the “R” albums I can see some amazing things in there. Reise, Reise is one of those good ones. It must be because it’s by Rammstein and they haven’t written a thing I don’t like. They are proper music gods. There’s a gorgeous sound with Rammstein that works so well. It’s an excellent mix of ragingly heavy guitars with rolling bass lines and keyboard work that just fits. Go and buy anything by them.
- Reise, Reise – sends shivers down my spine and is beautifully written.
- Mein Teil – A good one to shout out.
- Dalai Lama – A nice slow heavy riff with a bouncy beat. It might be about that dude, it might not. I’m not really into ly
- Keine Lust – Oh gosh. Go and see the video for this one. It’s fantastic. There’s a brilliance associated with Rammstein songs that blow me away. This is a great song.
- Los – A nice and gentle song with a rolling bass riff and gorgeous high pitched melody thing.
- Amerika – A cash cow.
- Moskau – I think this has some Russian people on it. Maybe from Pussy Riot. I don’t know what it’s about but I don’t think you can sing about Moscow and be praising of the regime. Maybe it’s positive about the population there. It’s an OK song.
- Morgenstern – Choral opening. A great start-stop riff to beat you up. Once the beat and riff goes continuous it’s glorious.
- Stein Um Stein – starts quietly but will blat you in the face.
- Ohne Dich – get those lighters in the air. It’s a lovely song.
- Amour – Deep voiced love story??
I love Rammstein and all their music is beautiful. Everyone should get these albums.
Rammstein – Rammstein
I do love Rammstein. I know I didn’t really rave about Mutter but this particular album is great. They really are master craftsmen of new German metal. I have no idea what they are singing and to me that doesn’t really matter. The music does enough for me.
- DEUTSCHLAND – great opener. Lovely song. [probably about killing or something – I don’t do lyrics at the best of times].
- Radio – these chaps are the best at writing brilliant melodies along with a special beat that makes you move.
- ZEIG DICH – I’m not sure how this band do it. They make an up-tempo song that you think is going to roll along and then the bridge hits you in the face.
- Auslander – This is one of those songs where I start thinking it should be a club track. I can imagine dirty nightclubs with all their dance beats playing and then someone puts this shit on and all of a sudden the whole club becomes metal fans. I think it’s also about immigration – but in a good way.
- SEX – not sure if this is about the joys or the horrors of sex but it’s a bouncy song with superb riffs. Plus, everyone gets to shout out SEX which is fun.
- PUPPE – Gosh this song starts out all lovely and gentle and you believe it’s going to be sweet and then BOSH it hits you straight in the face. Brilliant.
- WAS ICH LIEBE – it’s perfectly good.
- DIAMANT – Lovely and smooth. Could be about death and murder, I wouldn’t know.
- WEIT WEG – It’s that little melody at the beginning isn’t it? I know a band are good song writers when they do something I wasn’t expecting but it fits the song and makes you think – wow, I’d never have thought to do that. Maybe my imagination is rubbish but there are only a few bands that surprise me.
- TATTOO – The melody in the chorus is lovely.
- HALLOMANN – This song rounds off a lovely album. I don’t think that any Rammstein album has disappointed me.
To tell you how good this album is can be summed up with the fact that their key changes don’t annoy me. I thoroughly enjoy this band. Their music is delightful. The live shows are stunning, full of theatre and sound perfect. I probably couldn’t rave enough about them.
Rammstein – MK Stadium
Last Saturday I went to see Rammstein play their current set at the MK Stadium in Milton Keynes. It was bloody amazeballs.
I had spent the previous week at RAF Shawbury with a cadet camp which was already a brilliant week and I then topped it off with this brilliant show. I drove down from the West Midlands to Milton Keynes and met with Smith in a supermarket car park. This gig is an important one because he had brought his kids along, their first major gig. You could tell that there was a slight trepidation from the eldest [around 14] but the youngest displayed nothing but sheer excitement [around 12].
The support band were two women who played pianos on a stage just in front of our seats. It was nice but I didn’t really pay attention. I was suffering with the effects of being tired and so I read a book on the development of the pressure suit for high altitude flying published by Nasa. It wasn’t bad but I needed to rest!
Rammstein themselves were amazing. Absolutely amazing. The show they put on is remarkable and worth every penny of the 7500 for the cost of a ticket. There were the normal theatrics with lots of fire. And I mean lots of fire. There were black clouds bellowing over the stadium at certain points during the show and I wondered what it must look like to someone outside the stadium.
There were many highlights. Every song had its own act. The keyboardist being burnt in a massive cauldron, the burning to death of a giant baby, the massive riding cock for the song “Pussy”, and flames shooting from guitars.
This might seem odd but the dance track halfway through made my night. That was the moment I thought “this is the best show ever”. One of the guitarists DJd while being lifted high above the stage and the other members of the band came on with suits that lit up along the limbs. They then performed a dance routine to an electronic version of thier own song. What balls, to make 30,000 metal fans listen and dance to electronic music. This band have it all.
This was the best show I have ever seen and is the third best gig I have been to. The Prodigy last year at M’era Luna may have been an excellent show, I don’t know I can’t remember any of it. This concert would have been top of the list had I been in the pit. You have to take whatever you can from a gig and I loved this but part of me hankered to be in the mild violence of the circle. I still had a great time. My top three gigs are: Combichrist Old School, The Prodigy and Rammstien – this one.
This is the thrid time I have seen Rammstein and it was bloody brilliant.
“Did I mention? I’m seeing Rammstein in Milton Keynes this weekend.”
Herzeleid – Rammstein
This is the first Rammstein album I have reviewed in these communications and I will tell you that it leaves me feeling quite excited. I was first given this album and another in the early 2000s. Listening to the heavy German sound was so different, so exciting and refreshing. The clear crispness and utter heaviness was astounding. I didn’t care that I couldn’t understand what was being said, I’ve listened to English speaking singers and not had a clue!
Rammstein are a band where you can start right at the beginning and just keep working through their albums. There isn’t a bad album.
Herzeleid came out in 1995. It doesn’t show. Buy this, give the band some of your money and enjoy.
This band a is dangerous and great fun.
Download 2013 – My Sunday
Sunday at Download 2013 and we drove in to Donington Park. I didn’t pay attention to where we parked the car, principally because Andy said he would remember where it was. We walked up to the natural arena and met with Andy’s olds. Today was going to be a monster day and so I was really looking forward to it. I bought a t-shirt for a friend and went to get one for me – whoops – they had sold out. Never mind, that’s what eBay is for.
One last beer at 10:30, just to keep the blood-alcohol levels from dropping too much. A pint of Trooper, of course.
First band – States of Panic. I can’t remember them.
Then we walked over to a small tent and watched a London based band called Mordecai. They were good enough for me to buy their album and actually listen to it. I would see them again, preferably in a small London Club.
Cancer Bats and Coal Chamber were on the main stage next and I don’t remember much about either of them. Cancer Bats did nothing for me but Coal Chamber were a bit better. I liked the singers’ tattooed face and the bass player.
Up next on the main stage were Five Finger Death Punch and I was blown away. I’d never heard any of their stuff before but thought it was brilliant. They had fun on stage and the lead singer was brilliant at controlling the crowd. Superb.
Amon Amarth were a joke. They had a Viking ship on the stage. No, I didn’t like them. Funny how within such a tightly confined definition of music there are still bands that do absolutely nothing for me. Perhaps my views change as I “mature”.
Stone Sour on the main stage were brilliant. The lead singer just smiled through it all. I expect bands to enjoy what they do and these guys were great. One guitarist was bald and dressed in a suit. The other guy had the best beard ever. All in all I had a great time.
Over to a tent and watched Newsted. Jason got a great round of applause and I really liked the music. I have pre-ordered the album because I want more. They finished with Whiplash and, oh my (to borrow from George Takei) it was a dream come true. They were most enjoyable. We stayed in this tent to listen to POD but any band that has a Christian story bothers me and they were rubbish.
After that we saw some of A Day to Remember but curiously I haven’t remembered. We also saw 30 Seconds from Mars who could improve by literally being 30 seconds from Mars so they are nowhere near this good planet of ours.
Last band of the shebang:
RAMMSTEIN
I love the music, I love the show, I love it all. I think I could quite happily see these guys every week for a year. The sound was massive, the show was pyrotechnical mania. AND they played Buch Dick. Look you need to see them on YouTube and you need to be converted. These guys make everyone else look like pussies. Absolutely brilliant and I can’t wait to see them again.
After the show we chatted to Andy’s olds and waited for the car park queue to die down a bit. When we left them it was already 12:30 and we headed off to find the car. We had lost it. We walked completely around one car park in the chuffing dark trying to find a dark blue car!! Eventually we re-traced our routes and found the car. Left or Right? There looked to be no queue to the left of the main exit and so I decided to turn that way. Bugger, just around the corner was a massive queue and no room to turn around. Eventually after rallying through some small villages we found the M1 and headed south.
Things I don’t really want to repeat:
- Seeing the pre-morning glow of the sun coming up as I drive down the M1
- Stopping for extreme caffeine input
- Getting flashed by a speed camera
- Watching the sun arise while drive along the M26
- Getting in at 5 and then getting up at 7 to go to work!
This Download weekend was one of the best things to have happened to me this year and I had a great time.
Excited
Very excited. I just bought my ticket for Download 2013. It’s a heavy metal festival held at Donington Park somewhere in the midlands. Now, I’m not a great fan of festivals and in all reality this will be my first, but, what a beauty it is going to be. I am going with my mate as it is his 40th birthday near to then and this seems to be the perfect way to celebrate.
First things first. I can’t go on the Friday as I have to work. So that means I am going to miss Slipknot. This is not a bad thing. I really am not bothered about seeing them. I will be travelling on the Saturday morning and then returning at a god-awful hour on the Sunday night / monday morning to head into work.
Headlining on the Saturday are IRON MAIDEN. This is good news as they were the first band I ever saw also the birthday boy was there for that one too. That was in 1988 and they were on the “7th Tour of a 7th Tour” tour. What makes this festival rather special is that they are going to be playing pretty much the same set as on that tour. It originally was filmed and released as the “Maiden England” video and I have a copy of that somewhere. Seeing Iron Maiden pretty much play the same set list as I saw 24/5 years ago is going to be brilliant. None of the new stuff will be played which is good as I’ve never really listened to anything recorded by them past about 1990!
On the Sunday the German industrial metal band RAMMSTEIN are going to be playing. This is also a good thing. I saw them a couple of years ago at Wembley Arena and they were brilliant. I am so looking forward to seeing them play again.
The headliners are making me sweat just thinking about it. I am very much looking forward to seeing the rest of the line up released. With a bit of luck Combichrist will be on there with, let’s say, Wolfsbane or the almighty for some real 80s throwback stuff.