martindavey87 ‘Made in Germany’ is a compilation by German industrial metal giants, Rammstein. Released in 2011 (the clue’s in the title), it features sixteen of the bands biggest and most powerful tracks, and is a well-rounded career retrospective for the sextet at that point in their career. However, as is always the case with these types of collections, the quality of the track list is subjective, and in my opinion, there’s an abundance of missing material!

But that comes down to my own personal tastes, and while there’s a few songs I’d have taken out and replaced with others, as a whole, this is a solid album which represents the band well. Full of bombastic and over-the-top hits such as ‘Du Hast’, ‘Sonne’, ‘Ich Will’, ‘Pussy’, ‘Amerika’, ‘Engel’, ‘Links 2 3 4’, ‘Mein Herz Brennt’ and album-exclusive track, ‘Mein Land’, there are so many awesome songs here that ‘Made in Germany’ still packs one hell of a punch, and will satisfy fans of the group or will make a fantastic entry point for newcomers.

However, while the track listing is fantastic, let’s look at some of the cons of this album. There’s a few fairly subtle edits that take away from the songs. While there’s nothing too severe, one notable exception that irks me is the awesome intro to ‘Du Riechst So Gut’ being cut in half. Not cool. There’s the obvious omissions, which comes down to personal taste again, but where the hell is ‘Feuer Frei’ or ‘Ich Tu Dir Weh’? But the biggest letdown is a bonus disc full of remixes. Sure, these things are normally more of a novelty, but for the most part, none of these remixes are really all that great, barring two; ‘Sonne’ remixed by Clawfinger is pretty good, and amazingly, a Scooter, rave-inspired mix of ‘Pussy’ is incredible, and saves that disc from becoming completely pointless.

Never mind all of that though, as the pros easily outweigh the cons, making ‘Made in Germany’ a fantastic album! While it will no doubt feel dated over time, as most compilations do, it does still hold up well, and the quality of the material on offer is of a high standard. Definitely worth a spin or two!

martindavey87 Released in 2019, Rammstein’s self-titled seventh album came out a lengthy ten-years after its predecessor, 2009’s ‘Liebe ist fur Alle Da’. The band managed to maintain popularity over the years by continuing to tour, with their world-renowned stage show becoming impossibly bigger and bigger each time. But with such an extended break from the studio, does absence really make the heart grow fonder?

There’s no doubt ‘Rammstein’ is quintessential Rammstein (aha!). It’s got all the elements that make the band so unique, be it Til Lindemann’s deep and powerful voice, the heavy, riff-oriented guitar work, the electronic pop elements or the overwhelmingly heavy and catchy compositions. But unfortunately, there’s just something a little underwhelming about the album as a whole, and I think that perhaps after ten years of waiting, it just kind of feels like it could have been a little bit better, maybe?

Ah, who am I kidding? It’s still a great release, and in a world where more and more bands are failing to feel as “big” as they once did, it shows that Rammstein, a German-singing industrial metal band, can peak chart lists and fill up stadiums of tens of thousands of fans the world over, with their less-is-more approach showing that you don’t need to be musical virtuosos to release a compelling metal album. And while the quality of the tracks do start to dip a little halfway through, there’s still some standout moments here that deserve mention.

‘Deutschland’, ‘Radio’, ‘Sex’, ‘Auslander’, ‘Zeig Dich’ and ‘Weit Weg’ are all fantastic and amazingly catchy tracks, and show that the band, 25 years into their career and still with the original line-up, are nowhere near slowing down. And while ‘Rammstein’ may not possess any unique, singular quality that makes it stand out from the German’s discography, it’s honestly just a great album that is sure to please fans of the band.

martindavey87 2009’s ‘Liebe ist Fur Alle Da’ is the sixth studio album by German industrial rockers Rammstein. It comes four years after the fairly disappointing and disjointed ‘Rosenrot’, and not only does it completely make up for that last blunder, but it firmly establishes the band, not only as the absolute kings of industrial metal, but as one of the more prominent bands of the entire metal genre.

The most notable difference between ‘Liebe...’ and the previous two releases, ‘Rosenrot’ and 2004’s ‘Reise Reise’, is the production, in which here, Rammstein are a lot heavier, with a more clear and precise sound. The last two albums seemed a bit “muddy” in places, whereas in ‘Liebe...’ there is a better clarity and focus, taking the band right back to the sound of their 2001 masterpiece, ‘Mutter’.

As always, there’re some monstrously crushing guitar riffs which are interspersed brilliantly with keyboards, giving the music plenty of variety, at times either heavy or soft, with dance and electronic influences. Vocalist Till Lindemann pushes his voice harder than ever, from gentle singing to booming roars. But it all works to give the group their own distinctive sound.

With some of Rammstein’s heaviest, most intense or most interesting tracks, such as ‘Ich Tu Dir Weh’, ‘Rammlied’, ‘Pussy’, ‘Haifisch’, ‘Waidmann’s Heil’ and the title track, it’s clear that the German’s are still at the top of their game, and with the usual controversial lyrics, imagery, music videos and live theatrics, ‘Liebe ist Fur Alle Da’ is a sure stamp that Rammstein belong in the upper echelon of metal bands.

martindavey87 2001’s ‘Mutter’ solidified German industrial rockers Rammstein as global megastars, and while it’d be an impossible task to top, 2004’s ‘Reise Reise’ was a more than worthy follow-up which maintained the bands high standards. So what went wrong here?

‘Rosenrot’, released just one year later, is essentially a “leftovers album”. Despite containing a number of singles which were given music videos, the album, mostly consisting of tracks that didn’t make it onto its predecessor, came out to minimal promotion and advertising. But understandably, when the quality of the material doesn’t live up to what the group had released prior, perhaps that’s why.

The thing is, while ‘Rosenrot’ isn’t a terrible release, it’s just not very memorable. Most of the tracks are pretty generic and bland, and they all tend to sound pretty similar. The monstrous anthems of ‘Mutter’ or the electronic dance grooves of ‘Sehnsucht’ are nowhere to be seen, and there just generally seems to be a huge lack of keyboards here, compared to earlier albums, anyway. Most of the songs tend to plod along with the same monotonous guitar riffs and baritone vocals. Still, the music itself is heavy and pounding, and when the band is on top form there’s a couple of decent numbers here.

‘Benzin’, ‘Rosenrot’, ‘Mann Gegen Mann’ and ‘Te Quiero Puta!’ are all respectable highlights, and fit well in the bands discography, but none of these hold up all that well to the likes of ‘Sonne’, ‘Du Hast’ or ‘Mein Herz Brennt’. Arguably the weakest album the band have put out at this point, ‘Rosenrot’ is still worth a listen or two if you’re a fan of Rammstein, but if you’re a newbie then you’re better off going with anything the band released prior to this.

martindavey87 Here’s an album that just hasn’t aged well. I’m pretty sure I enjoyed Rammstein’s ‘Live Aus Berlin’ when I was younger, but hearing it now, it just doesn’t do the band justice.

The thing is, anyone that knows Rammstein knows that they are all about being “huge”. They sound huge! Their stage show is huge! Their image is huge! Everything about them is bombastic and over the top, and this album, released in 1999, just doesn’t live up to what the band would go on to become.

With only two studio albums released at the time, the set list is pretty solid, but again, when compared to the bands later output, it’s pretty lacking now. Still, it’s a decent enough look at the band in their early days, even back then, with only two albums under their belts and speaking their native German, they were a live force to be reckoned with.

The production as well, is pretty weak, and just doesn’t compare to the studio albums. All the early hits are here, including ‘Du Hast’, ‘Engel’, ‘Sehnsucht’, ‘Heirate Mich’ and ‘Du Riechst So Gut’, but none of them can compete with their studio counterparts.

Rammstein are one of my all-time favourite bands, and ‘Live Aus Berlin’ by its own merits is not a bad album, but as I started my review by saying, it just hasn’t aged well, and today it’s pretty irrelevant. I’ll stick to the studio albums.