On 1998's LIVE AUS BERLIN, Germany's Rammstein works an extremely vocal hometown crowd into quite a frenzy. The band specializes in brutal, chant-along bombast that's designed to leave people sweaty from fist pumping and hoarse from shouting. Recalling the early days of such bands as Killing Joke and Laibach, Rammstein layers overloaded guitars and throaty Teutonic snarls over a massive, machine-like rhythm section guaranteed to thwart all attempts at crowd control. The bulk of the material is drawn from Rammstein's first album, HERZELEID, though six tracks are drawn from the band's U.S. debut, SEHNSUCHT. The b-side "Wilder Wein" is also unearthed. Standouts include the Wagnerian swell of "Du Riechst So Gut," a vicious track memorializing a 1988 disaster at Rammstein Air Force Base that has served as the band's theme song. "Bestrafe Mich," "Bnck Dich," and "Wollt Ihr das Bett in Flammen Sehen" are especially brutal. Topping it all, there's the (unintentionally?) chilling sound-spectacle of several thousand kids singing along to the chorus of "Weisses Fleisch," a first-person narrative from the point of a rapist.

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