rammstein live

The arena as practically full by the time Combichrist take the stage, the lights go dark and all of a sudden, it all kicks off! Armed with not one but two drum kits and the meanest looking keyboard player you have ever seen, Combichrist burst into All Pain is Gone which then leads into the marching beat of Scarred. Andy LaPlegua leaps around the stage like a maniac and really screams out each word adding to the tremendous energy of the whole performance.

You have to feel for the roadies for this gig as there are bits of drum flying everywhere such is the ferocity that the percussionists are hitting the kits.

Combichrist play a selection of their most well known tracks including Get Your Body Beat which is even better live than on record and end with What the F*ck is Wrong With You? which everyone is chanting by the end. Watching this band is like being at some insane post-apocalyptic dance club where everything has gone to hell and everybody loves it!

After a small amount of respite the anticipation is noticeably growing within the crowd such is the expectation of seeing one of the most hyped live acts within metal’s history. Things get started by Richard and Paul punching their way from behind a wall onto the stage before front man Tilll blowtorches his way onto the stage and is dressed as sort of mad butcher. Even more excitingly, he has the light-up mouth effect from the Ich Tu Dir Weh video, the first track is Rammlied from the new album. The sound is utterly immense, the guitars are so heavy they could break a person in half!

The set itself makes it look like the band are playing inside a giant run-down factory full of smoke and scratched metal but there is hardly time to notice this as the crushing B******* is up next! Then it’s time to bring forth the fire, three songs in and this much fire already? You just know this is going to be amazing! There is a bit of synchronised marching during Weisses Fleisch and then it is Flake the keyboardist’s first time to shine and performs a ‘dance solo’, looking like an undead version of Biggles he struts his stuff, a great bit of humour thrown in!

Next up is the chaotic Feuer Frei complete with head mounted flamethrowers, so dangerous but so exciting! A nice lamp and old gramophone are wheeled onto the stage and some baby dolls with laser eyes descend from above, actually, make that exploding baby dolls with laser eyes! After a couple of calmer numbers Ich To De Weh is up next and Till has a (staged) fight with Flake, throws him into a bath and proceeds to pour fire onto him from a very tall pillar! But it’s alright Flake survives and has a shiny new glittery suit, a mixture of madness and genius all at once to accompany another track delivered with complete precision!

There is almost too much to write about this concert, the band are all constantly on the move and marching around the stage, Flake even has a treadmill, it’s tiring just watching them and that’s before the sheer amount of fire on offer! Every track is a winner from Links 2-3-4 to Du Hast getting the biggest crowd response of the night. The crowd braces itself for Pussy and everyone at the front ends up getting showered in something rather dubious from something big and pink!

Till is a man of few words during gigs and after a quick thank you at the end and the crowd stamping and screaming for more they are rewarded with two encores which included Sonne and Haifisch where there is the welcome return of some dinghy crowd surfing from Flake! Encore number two delivers Engel and Till wearing a massive pair of metal wings, which of course have flamethrowers on them, as if you would expect any less!

An amazing night’s entertainment and as Richard jumps off the stage to thank the front row you can tell this has been a great night for the band as well. The next time Rammstein hit these shores is at the Sonisphere festival where the stage show is planned to be even bigger, miss it at your peril!

by Claudia Glazzard