Romanian Rammstein Review

There's a fairly comprehensive review of the Sonisphere Romania show here. Thanks to Rammchick for the link.

Anathema Tech Posts about Rammstein

Anathema played at Sonisphere Romania in Bucharest, and one of their guitar tech is maintaining a blog about it. He has posted about the megalith that is the Rammstein stage set, and how awesome the show is here.

Bucharest Photos

Mishu Vass has posted some great Rammstein shots from the crowd at Sonisphere Romania.

New Convert?

I found a lovely blog post today. I reckon (just a hunch) that she might like Rammstein. Let me know if I'm wrong.

Rammstein's Athens Set-List

Kindly provided by rammstein6athens:

- Rammlied
- Bückstabü
- Waidmanns Heil
- Keine Lust
- Feuer Frei
- Wiener Blut
- Frühling In Paris
- Ich Tu Dir Weh
- Du Riechst So Gut
- Benzin
- Links 2-3-4
- Du Hast
- Pussy
-----------------------
- Sonne
- Haifisch
- Ich Will

Motherfuckers

RZK has had a chat with Sonisphere. It's not really an interview, but I thought you might be interested.

Rammstein Tour a Hit

Rammchick has shared a link to this. The LIFAD tour is ranking second, after the Black Eyed Peas tour, which I honestly didn't know was on. Not too shabby for a band that performs in German.

3 AM - Half-Time

The NZ/Paraguay match has me awake and I don't like the commentator prattle at half-time, so I went and found this. A pat on the back to the Bulgarian metallers. It's not every day a government minister pays tribute to music fans for their conduct at a major festival.

Turkish Fans Won't Like This

Apparently Islamist media in Turkey are not happy about the advent of Rammstein specifically, and the Sonisphere festival in general. The reasons against the band seem to be the same as those cited in Belarus.

Eh.

Update 2010.06.24 2217hrs - From here:

The "Israeli company" in question is Purple Concerts, a big concert promoter based in Germany and run by two Israelis. The company recently brought to Turkey unwitting Mossad stooges such as Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood and the members of "WrestleMania Revenge Tour."

Rammstein's Haifisch: Behind The Scenes Clip

Ariesgirl has shared this link on the Neo Rammstein (French) site. Awesome!

Scalpers Beware

The Bulgarian internal revenue authorities are all over the Sofia Rocks Sonisphere festival. Ticketing, merchandisers, and the like are being scrutinised and monitored throughout. I hope they nail the scalpers. They are such parasites.

unTill Night

A nightclub party in Solfia lured Lindemann out of his private space the other night. Here is a link to the gallery. Of the 155 photos there he appears in around 30, and in every face shot the shutters are down. The mask is firmly in place with not even a glimmer of animation. They might be fun to go through if you are into the minutae of the man's public appearances, but to be honest nobody's home, so for those who prefer to see him candid and interested I can't recommending wading through this extensive series of perfect strangers.

360 Degree Rammstein Shot

Erikire has linked to this wonderful 360 degree shot of the Provinssirock show. The same site also has this one and this. Very effective!

Rammstein Understand Us

Ts4EVER has pointed out that, in the MTV footage at least, Till sings Wir verstehen euch toward the end of Ich Will, rather than Wir verstehen euch nicht, which is probably meant to make us feel warm and fuzzy, and works for me.

Rammstein at Metaltown

Combalex has posted a review of his Metaltown experience on Herzeleid, and has very kindly given me permission to post an excerpt from it here for you. There are no details of the show, as it was the same show as usual, but it sounds like the vibe was exceptional:

People started to move in to the first section of the crowd, i had gotten myself a sweet front row spot again infront of Paul once again, because like i mentioned earlier, he is the best guy to stand at, even though it is like my 3rd time. But that just tells everyone how great he is! Anyway, it started to get really crowded, i couldn't even reach my cellphone in my pocket, just insane. Then people also started pushing for some reason, probably drunks who had nothing better to do.

But then Rammstein went on and all the troubles went away. I could tell through the entire show that the band was in a such a great mood, it was really great to see them once again, even if it was a few weeks ago since the last time. Till was laughing alot and spoke a bunch of swedish, that even made sense! Most of it was about fucking though.. Oh well, that's Till! Paul was doing some weird moves that made Oliver and Schneider laugh. He also repeated some things that people in the crowd did, like a few of us was clapping along in Haifisch while Flake was in the boat, Paul just clapped along as well and started laughing, such an awesome guy! Flake was being silly as always, he even made fun of Till's headbanging in Ich will, it was hilarious!

Thanks to this, a great crowd that was headbanging, jumping, singing, all of that. It pretty much made it the best Rammstein show i have ever been to, it was just awesome to say least.

Thanks Combalex.

Yeah, Slack...

In case you're wondering if I died in the bath, I have just finished up working in a job that I was really unhappy in, so I've neglected you. Don't worry, I will get back on track soon, and resume bringing you the content you read this site for. I just need to let my hair down a bit...

Lovebreed

Jamey Jasta has Tweeted about Rammstein. Aw, nice! He's talking about playing Bergen with them.

Jamey is the front-man for Hatebreed, in case you're stupidly ignorant, as I am. I've added him to my metal Twitter-list. Here's his blog.

It's All Greek to Me

Rammstein play Athens this month. I'm cursing a bit, because I was in Greece this time last year. I'm Greek by marriage (Greeks will know what I mean by that), and we go over semi-regularly, but this year is an off-year, damnit!

Richard has given an interview to a Greek, which Rammstein.com.uy has in turn found and posted. I have proceeded to steal it from them:



Don't ask me what the Greek means. I don't speak Greek, yet. I would see if my father-in-law could translate, but he's in Greece. Enjoy!

Win Sonisphere Knebworth Tickets

You can enter here, courtesy of Virtual Festivals.

Petition to Bring Rammstein to Australia

Sign it!

from RammsteiNZ

Holy Crap!

I wonder if Schneider will regret this interview. It's utterly charming and very strange:

Finally, the classic Bizarre question: necrophilia, coprophilia or bestiality – which would you go for?
Oh, that’s a great question! I know this game – I played it once with a girlfriend from America, and we had a very funny night. I only have sex with people I’m close to, I won’t do anything with dead people, and I won’t do anything with animals, so it’s gotta be the poo thing… if it’s the poo of my girlfriend or wife, then it’s going to be fine! I definitely wouldn’t eat it, though– I’d roll myself into the poo.

If you don't find toilet humour funny (freak) then there's plenty of other stuff for you to check out in the interview, but for me it peaked at the poop.

Thanks to Eva for the link.

Bring Rammstein to Australasia

How many fans does it take to bring Rammstein halfway around the planet? I have no idea, but shall we find out?

Copenhagen Review

Metal-Revolution.com has its review of the June 2 show in Denmark here:

...What followed was for the most part typical Rammstein show anno 2010, but then again. Comparing to their Belgrade show the stage was smaller and there seem to be fewer pyrotechnics. Still for the most part the show was the same, and it was effective. Crowed was into it and you just couldn't go wrong by looking at the crowd. Be it the jumping, clapping, amazement, smiles or singing, there was no doubt that the crowd was getting what they came for. The visuals, the timing and the sound were all spot on, nothing less...

The set-list:

01 - Rammlied
02 - B******
03 - Waidmann´s Heil
04 - Keine Lust
05 - Feuer Frei!
06 - Wiener Blut
07 - Frühling In Paris
08 - Ich Tu Dir Weh
09 - Du Riechst So Gut
10 - Benzin
11 - Links 2 3 4
12 - Du Hast
13 - Pussy
------------------
14 - Sonne
15 - Haifisch
16 - Ich Will

The Kiss-Off

This is more about Combichrist's Joe Letz and Kiss than Rammstein, but bear with me.

Recently DoktorDoom shared this video. Just over five minutes into it Kiss are highly dismissive of Rammstein. Now, I'm a Kiss fan from way back (when they were skinny), but that kind of arrogance stopped being cool when the 80s crashed, so I like their music a lot better than their attitude.

Today I decided it was high time I caught up with the Combichrist (read: Joe's) blog, and I found this little gem:

COMBICHRIST / RAMMSTEIN part 2: london, UK, rammstein support June 11, 2010, 02:55:pm
THIS SHOW HAPPENED ON: february 4th, 2010

woke up somewhere pretty cool today. at wembley stadium. RIP freddie mercury. i taped that concert on VHS when i was a kid and watched it constantly. knockin on heaven's door was a real tear jerker. but then again, so was E.T. back then. anyways, we didn't play in the stadium though that would have ruled. we played in the arena next door which still holds like 15,000. that shit was sold out. KISS is playing here in a couple weeks. that shit AIN'T sold out.... put the nails in the coffin dudes... seriously ;-)...

Nice. Thank you Joe. I'd buy you a beer, but you're way the hell over there, so buy yourself one and drink to me.

Hold on...

RammsteiNZ - For Kiwi Rammstein Fans

I've started a NZ Rammstein fan-site at RammsteiNZ.com. I'd really appreciate it if you guys could propagate this, more particularly to any New Zealand residents or citizens you know. I am going to mirror the Rammstein news from here to that site, but keep the LILT stuff and the NZ-specific stuff separate.

The way I see it, there are two way Rammstein would come to NZ. The first is if they elected to take part in BDO (Big Day Out) again. The second is if a demonstrable number of interested fans piped up. I reckon the best way to achieve either is to create a NZ Rammstein fan community. This will be interesting...

From Abba to Rammstein

Love him or hate him, Jonas Åkerlund makes an impression. I have never really known much about him, except that he is from the country I was born in and that he has courage where his work is concerned. He's never really managed to enthrall me, but he does turn out some visually stunning work. Here's an article about him where he cites Rammstein as a career highlight.

...Akerlund cites his remarkably explicit video for Pussy, from the German metal freaks Rammstein, as his career highlight.

"It's the shortest treatment I've ever done," he says.

"I wrote an email to them and said, 'Let's make a porno.' Ten minutes later, they said yes."

I think I have heard that before somewhere...

LILT: Bückstabü 1.2

Soon night will fall
We are alone
You need not
Need not be so down
Voices whisper from between the ears
They are saying (they are saying)
Don't you dare
Must forego
Do not touch there
Just say hell no
Bückstabü
This I'll get
Bückstabü
This I'll get

Don't be afraid
Since I am here
As you know
I am oh-so near
Voices whisper from between the ears
They are saying
Don't you dare
Must forego
Do not touch there
Just say hell no
Bückstabü
This I'll get
Bückstabü
This I'll get

Two souls, oh, they are in my loins
But only one of them can survive
The first time will not hurt at all
There will not be a second time

Bückstabü
Don't you dare
Bückstabü
You must forego
Bückstabü
Do not touch there
Bückstabü
Just say no
Bückstabü
This I'll get
Bückstabü
This I'll get

[lyrics]

Clarification on Court Situation

Susanne has once again come to my aid and clarified the situation I was wondering about in this morning's post.

I was right about one thing. The de-indexing is an interim measure while the indexing is appealed. Susanne explains that it is this temporary suspension of the indexing that may be appealed within two weeks. She also said the ability of the court to suspend the indexing in this way is put in place in order that the court might minimise damages caused to the complainant by the situation they are appealing, if their case is strong.

So the indexing is lifted for the appeal to be heard, and within two weeks that suspension may be appealed by the BPjM (to keep the album indexed while the appeal-proper is heard), and then the appeal itself will be heard, and if Rammstein wins then the BPjM can also appeal that.

Sorted!

Better Pro-Shot Rammstein@RAR Footage - HD

I offer big thanks to Rammlieder for the heads up about these videos, and Rammstein Portugal for linking them all in one place. Note that they are uploaded in 720p, so click through to YouTube via the song name above the embedded video to view in HD:

Rammlied HD


Ich Tu' Dir Weh HD


Sonne HD


Haifisch HD


Ich Will HD


By the way, is it just me, or does Till have a complete Muppet moment just over halfway through the Rammlied video?

Mediabiz on Deindexing

The Mediabiz.de site has posted an article (GLT English - original German here) about Rammstein's court victory over the BPjM. The GLT translator had the same awful problems with this as with the ruling report on the lawyers' site, but one new piece of information jumped out at me on page two: the BPjM has two weeks to respond:

The BPjM have the opportunity, so bad lawyer to appeal within two weeks against the decision of the Cologne Administrative Board of the Higher Administrative Court Münster.

This leads me to think that maybe if they don't go back to the court in Münster within a fortnight then the removal from the index is permanent. If there are any German lawyers reading this please do advise me.

Mr Stupid Opens His Mouth

Belarus Morality Man, Cherginets, has been talking smack about Rammstein again. You may have read the post I made about Elton John being considered a corrupting influence in Belarus, just as Rammstein were. Well, apparently Belarus is having trouble keeping their homosexual population suitably oppressed and there is a fear that Sir Elton will come over all gay on stage. I have never considered the possibility that elton John might decide to pound the choccy starfish on stage, live, but after reading Cherginets's account of the Rammstein show maybe they are right to fear the balladeer:

Cherginets said the Council had already prevented outbreaks of “immorality” during a May concert by German industrial metal band Rammstein in the Belarusian capital.

“If we had not interfered, there would have been sex on stage and the relief of physical needs right in front of the audience,” the official said.

What did this interference involve I wonder? I have this wonderful image in my head of the band, standing in a row on stage, being chastised by Cherginets with their heads hanging and their tackle out.

Reworking LILT

You may notice some changes. I have cleared the left side of the site out, moving much of its content to pages linked along the top of the page, underneath the title banner. I've split LILTs up by album, put in a page for community, networking, etc. and removed the legal crap to its own page. I have also created a FAQ. All of this should make the site a bit less busy. Let me know if you have any feedback, be it negative or positive. So long as it's constructive it is welcome.

Rammstein Ruling Information

Thanks so much to Susanne for passing this on to me. Here is a GLT translation to English.

The upshot is this. 'They', probably being UMG or Pilgrim, filed for suspension of the indexing May 31 and it was granted. This was because the court found that the BPjM provided insufficient evidence for the reasons for the indexing that it gave. Nor has it taken into the account the nature of Rammstein's work and its artistic value, nor all of the content*. Note that this is the finding of the Cologne Administrative Court, rather than my speculation and wishful thinking, so you can savour this a little.

The ruling has much more detail, but all I can provide is a precis based on German legal-speak translated by a machine with no legal training, so I can't actually do much better without becoming proficient in German legalese.

I can tell you that the onus now appears to be on the BPjM to back up its original finding with more data, to take the artistic style and standing of the band into account, and to assess based on the entire text of the song. It seems to me that the photo of Richard has been entirely let off the hook by the court, but I'm not 100 % certain about that.

Whatever the finer points I think we can be optimistic. The BPjM has a job to do, and we will know nothing, ultimately, until it completes the task set before it or concedes the ruling.

* Here the ruling refers to the fifth stanza. I can only assume this refers to the line 'Wünsch dir was ich sag nicht nein', which has always struck me as rather sweet, especially in that context, as well as highly sinister.

Update 2010.06.10: Official site post about this here (German) and here (English).

Belarus Questions the Fabulous

Apparently Elton John may be as insidious and evil as Rammstein. Belarus, I am here crossing my fingers that this madness stops, eventually.

My Understanding of the Rammstein Deindexing

Okay, so you know that at present the indexing is not in effect. Further to that, from a very brief email I have had back from the BPjM, it would seem that this reversal has been ruled by the court while an appeal is heard against the indexing. This would mean that the permanence of this change depends on the outcome of the appeal. It may be that the indexing comes back into effect after the court has heard and ruled against UMG or Pilgrim, or whoever the party appealing is. If the appeal is successful I guess the change would be permanent. I may have this wrong, but I don't think I do.

I'm really hoping the BPjM will tell me what the current ruling is, and also what the appeal is based on once the case has been made to the court.

Deindexing Ruling

I'm really keen to find out why Rammstein's LIFAD indexing has been overturned by the court. Has anyone seen a copy of the ruling yet? If so please do share the link with me.

You Guys Heard About Rammstein in GH, Right?

Do I need to post the details? Nah, I'll just link to TG's story about it from a few days back.

Ich Tu' Dir Weh Deindexed

It appears that the original 2009 decision by the BPjM to index LIFAD, because of ITDW and the picture of RZK, has been reversed:

Thanks to Rammstein.NL for the information.

Original German
GLT English

I have to say I am delighted with this, but will be interested to find out why. They had a solid case under law for the listing. This is very intriguing, but explains the performances of ITDW unaltered recently.

MTV Rock Am Ring Rammstein Footage

Rammlied:


ITDW:


Sonne:


Haifisch:


Ich Will:


Update 2010.06.08: Added ITDW.

Rock Am Ring Rammstein

I hope you all caught the Rammstein footage from Rock Am Ring that MTV Austria showed earlier. It was great. They showed Rammlied, Ich Tu' Dir Weh, Sonne, Haifisch (including boat), and Ich Will. There were some streaming problems, which I'm guessing those watching it on TV will probably not have had, but it was minor stuff, and the whole thing was well worth seeing.

My thoughts? Lindemann was in good voice, demonstrating way more vocal precision and power than he has live in the past. All looked and performed well. Flake looks like a used car salesman with that moustache. The audience was absolutely awesome. I have to see them perform live before they realise that they need not work another day in their lives, and retire.

I have other thoughts, but they're not fully developed, so I'm going to stop there.

I have no doubt that this footage will end up on YouTube, so don't worry too much if you missed it.

Rammstein at Rock Am Ring NOW

Here.

The Gauntlet Hits Puberty

Our friend, The Gauntlet, has turned 14. Hair, voice, smell, and giblets will all be in a state of rather messy flux. It's a tumultuous and confusing time for any website, but I'm sure TG will get through it okay, and without developing a mono-brow (I hope).

Love you, TG <3

More Wonderful Hjorth Photos

Once again Christian Hjorth has posted fantastic photos of Rammstein's live show. This guy is an artist. Thanks for the heads up, Nimbo.

Back in the Saddle

I'm feeling much more myself now, but my posting may remain a little patchy. A girlfriend in the States has set me a poetic challenge that I am really looking forward to getting my teeth into, and I need to write a piece for a separate site. I will definitely be a little more verbose here from now on though, and plan to squeeze some more Rammstein adaptions into the gaps too.

There's also the matter of my second round of LIFAD reviewing. I need to review the album now I know what the lyrics mean. I also need to review the Haifisch video. I'm not sure when I will get to that though.

Because I'm kind of busy my news-sniffing will probably suffer though. I spend spend a lot of time combing through a butt-load of Rammstein information, and discard the vast majority, so if any of you find stuff you think is worth sharing please do help me out and send it to me.

Quebec Information Dump

PRweb has posted a good summary of the show in Canada next month. It includes links, booking information, and summarises previously announced artists (including Rammstein). Some newly announced artists also feature.

Ruminating on Pussy

With all the German clichés in Pussy why is there no mention of Lederhosen?

BubbleT1ger's Music Box

Why have I never seen this until now? By the way, I found it here.

Almost Done Being Concise

I have now watched someone die, spent hours studying their life, and then said goodbye to them. I'm almost at a point where the world has resumed as usual, but not quite. I'll stop posting monosyllabic links soon, and actually get back to being a source of information and a poet once again. Just not today...

Oldie But Goodie: Ich Will

It looks to be about 2001.

Pinkpop Interview

Original Dutch.

GLT English.

Quote:

Rammstein was the most expensive act, even more costly than the most expensive. They cost me 1.2 million euros.

Thanks Tempelhüter.

Wuhlheide Photos

Link.

Another link.