In 1987, U.S.

President Ronald Reagan uttered the famous words, "Mr.

Gorbachev, tear down this wall"; in 1989, the Berlin Wall (one of the most hated symbols of communism) did, in fact, come down -- and in 1990, West and East Germany were officially reunited.

Musically, the collapse of communism had a major impact in East Germany, where musicians suddenly had a lot more artistic freedom.

That included heavy metal musicians, who were active in East Germany and other parts of Eastern Europe during the communist years but were very underground.

The destruction of the Berlin Wall made heavy metal a lot more visible in East Berlin, where West Germany's Kreator appeared on a bill with three other bands (Coroner, Tankard, and Sabbat) at a major metal festival in March 1990.

Kreator's appearance at the festival was originally released on the VHS cassette Live in East Berlin, and in 2008, SPV reissued those performances on the two-disc set At the Pulse of Kapitulation: Live in East Berlin, 1990 (which contains the same performances on both a DVD and an audio CD).

Even after digital remastering, the picture on the DVD is somewhat grainy, but the sound quality is quite good -- and Kreator are in excellent form during an inspired and highly explosive set that includes a lot of material from 1989's Extreme Aggression (including "Bringer of Torture," "Some Pain Will Last," "Love Us or Hate Us," "Betrayer," and the title song) as well as from 1988's Terrible Certainty ("Toxic Trace," "Behind the Mirror"), 1986's Pleasure to Kill ("Riot of Violence" and the title song), and 1985's Endless Pain ("Tormentor," "Flag of Hate").

One of the DVD's interesting bonuses is a short documentary called The Past and Now, which finds East Europeans who were at the 1990 festival reflecting on its importance 18 years later in 2008.

Despite the imperfect picture quality, At the Pulse of Kapitulation: Live in East Berlin, 1990 is an exciting document of Kreator's appearance at a truly historic festival.