Shock and awe rules ok for Rammstein

The German authorities objected to the sleeve, on which the sextet seemed primed to dissect a nude woman, and particularly the violent lyrics of the song Ich tu dir Weh (I Want to Hurt You). And that’s without considering the special edition, a box set containing six pink sex toys purportedly modelled on the band’s own members.

An evening spent with them in concert, however, should dispel any perceived threat to society’s moral fabric. At their first London show in five years they were hilarious — camp cartoon characters as vicious as Tom and Jerry.

It probably helped that non-German speakers missed out on barrel-chested frontman Till Lindemann’s lyrics. Instead his guttural roars spread a general sense of doom without specifics.
Low, juddering guitars amplified the ear-bashing but the sound was lifted on tracks such as Du hast by Flake Lorenz’s synthesised atmospherics.

Even if you find the industrial metal sound as appealing as a Black & Decker sander to the earlobe, the astounding spectacle showed why Rammstein are huge across Europe. We were never more than five minutes from a fireball, some of them so large that I’m sure my eyelashes are shorter today. Baby dolls fired green lasers into the audience before exploding one by one.

Lindemann shot jets of flame from a contraption attached to his mouth while still singing, then set fire to a fake stage invader during Benzin.

At the climax of Pussy he sat astride a giant pink cannon and ejaculated foam into the front rows, at which point it was no longer possible to find him scary. It was good dirty fun all the way.

Rammstein
Wembley Arena
Arena Square, Engineers Way, HA9 0DH