Review: Rammstein – 'Paris' (Album)

RAMMSTEIN
'Paris'
UNIVERSAL MUSIC

Rammstein are a band, against all of the odds, in a league of their own. An international success story that A) play industrial metal, and B) sing primarily in their native tongue over the much more commercial English option. But certainly since their breakthrough album, 2001's 'Mutter' they have been on an unstoppable rise, and despite their last original studio effort hitting stores in 2009 they have continued to be an in-demand live act.

'Paris', the live album accompanying the brand new concert film directed by long-time video collaborator Jonas Åkerlund, documents the band's monumental 'Made In Germany: 1995 – 2011' tour. Rammstein enjoy a live reputation that can only be comparable to Kiss in their heyday. Half the fun of seeing them perform isn't just the bombastic strains of their NDH tinged industrial metal hits but also seeing what new pyros and effects they will employ to thrill their audience. As a result their live releases are as ravenously consumed as their studio albums. 'Live Aus Berlin', 'Volkerball', and 'In Amerika' are all classics in their own right, but cinematically 'Paris' goes further than ever before.

However, this review is for the accompanying two-disc live album, and while you can't expect the subtle nuances of the visuals and direction of the concert film to be translated to the CD, you can always expect a high quality release. And that's exactly what is delivered.

The album is a beautifully clear and well mixed live album with a nice balance of “band Vs audience noise” with the Parisian audience's enthusiastic applause and sing-a-longs faithfully mixed in. As for the content of the set list, the band cover the entirety of their back catalogue, even the better cuts from 'Herzelied' get a good airing despite having been glanced over on previous tour cycles. Tracks such as 'Wolt Ihr Das Bett In Flammehn Sehn', 'Sehnsucht', 'Feur Frei', 'Mein Teil', 'Ohne Dich', and 'Pussy' show off the full gamut of the band's prowess with Til Lindemann's voice sounding commanding and imposing against the meticulously and passionately performed music.

One thing that has always been a pain with “live” albums is when footage from across a tour ins condensed together to look like one show instead of being presented as a full tour document, or worse, when that footage is overlayed with the audio from one specific show. There are none of those issues with Rammstein though. Their live documents have always been a faithfully reproduced single show captured for posterity and 'Paris' quite happily sits within not only the live portion of the band's discography, but also the pantheon of great live albums.  

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