kmfdm-albums

OPIUM- 1985 (never released)

KMFDM's first recorded album was tape-only and was never commercially released. Word of mouth spread through clubs prompting interest in different small labels. The original masters have been found, and a possible re-release is possible. However, Sascha has mentioned that some of the recordings are in awful shape and the process of fixing them up is very time consuming. Judging by the odd track titles and the date this was floating around, its safe to say this sounded a bit like the KMFDM 84-86 recordings which you can find on various ftp's.

Tracklist:

1. Penetration
2. Splatter
3. Fix Me Up!
4. Get it On
5. Mating Sounds of Helicopters
6. Warp'd
7. Your Monkey's Business
8. Helmut! Mein Helmut!
9. Cuntboy
10. The Smell

WHAT DO YOU KNOW DEUTSCHLAND?- 1986

This was KMFDM's first official release. The album was originally released on Z Records in December 1986 and consists of various songs recorded from 1983-1986. Compared to the complex programming and driving guitars of KMFDM's later works, 'What Do You Know Deutschland?' is minimalist by comparison. The album was rereleased by Waxtrax! in 1991.

Tracklist:

1. Kicking Ass
2. Me I Funk
3. What Do You Know?
4. Conillon
5. Itchy Bitchy
6. Deutsche Schuld
7. Sieg-Sieg
8. Positiv
9. Lufthans
10. Itchy Bitchy (dance version)
11. The Unrestrained Use of Excessive Force

Personnel:
Sascha Konietzko
En Esch
Raymond Watts
Jr. Blackmail

DON'T BLOW YOUR TOP- 1988

This album was KMFDM's first release on their long time record label Waxtrax!. Produced by Adrian Sherwood (known for his work with Nine Inch Nails, The Cure and Depeche Mode among many others), 'Dont Blow Your Top' featured a sound like What Do You Know Deutschland? with EBM influnces and was very sample heavy. The title track was released as a vinyl-only single and 'Disgust' is a favorite among many KMFDM fans. In support for this album, KMFDM landed gigs in Europe opening for industrial bands like Einsturzende Neabauten and The Young Gods.

Tracklist:

1. No Meat No Man
2. Don't Blow Your Top
3. Killing
4. Disgust
5. Oh Look
6. King Kong Dub Rubber Mix
7. What a Race
8. No News
9. Tod Durch Bongo Bongo
10. Killing (for your sampling kit)
11. Oh Shit

Personnel:
Sascha Konietzko
En Esch
Raymond Watts

add. vocals- Sigrid Meyer

UAIOE- 1989

'UAIOE' is a love it or hate it album. Instead of the sample heavy, 'ultra heavy beat' music of yesteryear, the album took more of a dub approach. En Esch's guitar playing was much more prominent and some tracks even sound like reggae! If anything, 'UAIOE' is an album which proved that KMFDM were never afraid to experiment with new sounds. KMFDM introduced themselves to the US, opening for Ministry on their 'Mind Is...' tour gaining lots of new fans in support for the album. 'More and Faster' was released as a vinyl-only single.

Tracklist:

1. Murder
2. UAIOE
3. Loving Can Be an Art (saturation mix)
4. More and Faster 243
5. Rip the System
6. Thrash Up!
7. En Esch
8. Ganja Rock
9. Thumb Thumb

Personnel:
Sascha Konietzko- vocals, programming, bass, misc
En Esch- vocals, guitar, programming, misc
Morgan Adjei- vocals
Rudolph Naomi- drums
Sigrid Meyer- add. vocals

NAIVE- 1990

This album introduced guitarist Guenter Schulz (a.k.a. Svet Am) which brought a whole new sound to KMFDM. More driven then ever before, the songs on this album were aggressive, melodic and dancy; sometimes all at once. The songwriting team of Konietzko/Esch really shows on this album, with many songs sung by the latter in german. Unforunately, KMFDM got into trouble with this album for the song 'Liebeslied' which took samples from composer Carl Orff's 'O Fortuna'. The album was discontinued after a very limited time and is now considered a collectors item among fans. Songs were remixed for 'Naive: Hell to Go' in 1994 so the album could have a re release. The songs 'Virus' and 'Godlike' both got their own releases featuring alternate versions of tracks and remixes.

Tracklist:

1. Welcome
2. Naive
3. Die Now Live Later
4. Piggybank
5. Achtung!
6. Friede (remix)
7. Liebeslied
8. Go to Hell
9. Virus (dub)
10. Disgust- live
11. Godlike (produced by Paul Barker)

Personnel:
Sascha Konietzko- vocals, programming, bass, misc
En Esch- vocals, guitar, programming, misc
Guenter Schulz- guitars
Rudolph Naomi- drums

add. personnel

Johann Bley- drums
William Rieflin- drums
Christine Siewert- backing vocals
William Tucker- guitar
Mark Durante- guitar

MONEY- 1992

Now quite a force in the industrial scene, 'Money' was released in '92, and featured a headlining tour and promotional music videos. The title track and 'Vogue' both got airplay on MTV's '120 Minutes'. Notably absent from the album was En Esch who was working on his solo album 'Cheesy' at the time. Money's sound is similar to Naive and brings us around to the bands past with a return to the samples/dubs you'd find on older albums. You could almost call this a Sascha Konietzko solo album, as compared to the rest of the bands albums it sounds much less like a group project. That isn't a bad thing though for it contains some of KMFDM's best songs yet.

Tracklist:

1. Money
2. Vogue
3. Help Us, Save Us, Take Us Away
4. Bargeld
5. Spiritual House
6. Sex on the Flag
7. I Will Pray
8. We Must Awaken
9. Under Satan (dub)
10. Vogue 2000
11. Money (deutschmark mix)

Personnel
Sascha Konietzko- vocals, programming, misc
En Esch- vocals, misc
Guenter Schulz- guitars

add. personnel
Dorona Alberti- backing vocals

ANGST- 1993

'Angst' when compared to the albums before, took a much more guitar-based approach, resulting in some of KMFDM's harsher songs to date. The album was fueled by the single 'A Drug Against War' which was a good representation of the album. Hard, fast and aggressive. Angst is an essential KMFDM album which showed the sound they would later progress with. For the 'Angstfest' tour, KMFDM toured with Chemlab and Sister Machine Gun; two bands who would later become well known among the industrial/coldwave circuit. Four singles/remix eps were released from this album; Light (which featured nine remixes of the song by many an artist), Sucks, A Drug Against War and Glory.

Tracklist:

1. Light
2. A Drug Against War
3. Blood (evil mix)
4. Lust
5. Glory
6. Move On
7. No Peace
8. A Hole in the Wall
9. Sucks
10. The Problem

Personnel
Sascha Konietzko- vocals, programming, bass, misc
En Esch- vocals, programming, guitar, misc
Guenter Schulz- guitar
Mark Durante- guitar

add. personnel
Dorona Alberti-vocals. lead on 'the problem'
Christine Siewert- backing vocals
Bruce Breckenfeld- hammond b-3

NIHIL- 1995

This album, without a doubt was KMFDM's big breakthrough. Arguably, their angriest, most guitar driven album, the songs on Nihil were featured on soundtracks (Juke Joint Jezebel on 'Mortal Kombat' and Ultra in 'Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie') and gained many new fans in the process. In support of the record, KMFDM toured the U.S. *twice* on the In Your Face and Beat by Beat tours with bands such as Dink, God Lives Underwater, The Genitorturers and KoRn (who would later become everybody's favorite MTV posterboys). Raymond Watts sings many of the ten songs on this album, perhaps giving another reason why the album is a favorite among fans and critics.

Tracklist:

1.Ultra
2. Juke Joint Jezebel
3. Flesh
4. Beast
5. Terror
6. Search & Destroy
7. Dis-O-Bediance
8. Revolution
9. Brute
10. Trust

Personnel
Sascha Konietzko- vocals, programming, bass, drums
En Esch- vocals, guitar, drums, percussion, harmonica
Raymond Watts- vocals, bass, programming
Guenter Schulz- guitars

add. personnel
William Rieflin- drums
Mark Durante- guitars
Dorona Alberti- backing vocals
Jennifer Ginsberg- backing vocals
Jim Christiansen- trombone
Jeff Olson- trumpet
Fritz Whitney- bari sax

XTORT- 1996

After the chaos of Nihil, topping the album would be a very hard feat indeed. Less a group effort then more of a gigantic collaboration among many artists, 'Xtort' is still one of KMFDM's more talked about albums. Gone from the fray except for a small contribution is En Esch who was on tour with the band Pigface at the time. Also notably absent is Raymond Watts who definately contributed to the success of Nihil. Here, the writing team of Konietzko/Schulz is stronger then ever, collaborating with poet Nicole Blackman, Einsturzende Neubauten's F.M. Einheit, and RevCo and Ministry's Chris Connely among many others. There was no tour for 'Xtort' and apparently from the get-go there were to be no singles. However, the song 'Power' was later released to radio and 'Son of a Gun' recieved rotation on MTV's 120 Minutes before Sascha demanded that they pull it out of rotation because of censorship reasons. The album also includes the secret song 'neighbor of the beast' after track ten; a perverted little fairy tale narrated by original member Jr. Blackmail

Tracklist:

1. Power
2. Apathy
3. Rules
4. Craze
5. Dogma
6. Inane
7. Blame
8. Son of a Gun
9. Ikons
10. Wrath

Personnel
Sascha Konietzko- vocals, programming, bass, drums, misc
Guenter Schulz- guitars, piano

add. personnel
Chris Connely- lead vocals on 'rules', 'craze', 'blame', 'ikons'
Nicole Blackman- lead vocals on 'dogma'
F.M. Einheit- whipping, banging and breaking stuff, misc
William Rieflin- drums
Mark Durante- guitars
Dorona Alberti- backing vocals
En Esch- guitar solo on 'inane'
Cheryl Wilson- backing vocals
Jennifer Ginsberg- backing vocals
Ron Lowe- drill and vaccum cleaner
Bruce Breckenfeld- hammond b-3
Jack Kramer- trumpet
Steve Finckle- saxophone
Mike Chicowicz- trumpet
Bob Samborski- trombone
John Van Eaton- sounds, noise
Jr. Blackmail- narration

KMFDM (a.k.a as SYMBOLS)- 1997

The first thing you'll notice about the album is its distinctive title. In catalogs it'll just be referred to as their self-titled album and a rumored title before its release was 'Wurst'. Most fans will just call it Symbols though to avoid confusion. 'Megalomaniac' (the first single) opens the album and shows whats yet to come. The sound on this album is a lot less guitar-driven then most of KMFDM's works in the 90's and Sascha's programming skills are better then ever. The whole album takes KMFDM into all kinds of new directions. 'Symbols' also introduced Tim Skold; solo artist and ex-frontman of Shotgun Messiah in the song 'Anarchy'. With the team of Konietzko/Esch/Schulz back on track it didnt mean KMFDM didnt want to collaborate anymore. Among the guests on this album are Skinny Puppy's Nivek Ogre and solo-artist Abby Travis. Also returning to the fray for two songs is Raymond Watts. Symbols is arguably one of KMFDM's finer albums and the tour was even more spectacular, featuring old favorites redone and with <PIG> and Rammstein as the opening acts.

Tracklist:

1. Megalomaniac
2. Stray Bullet
3. Leid Und Elend
4. Mercy
5. Torture
6. Spit Sperm
7. Anarchy
8. Down and Out
9. Unfit
10. Waste

Personnel
Sascha Konietzko- vocals, programming, percussion, misc
En Esch- vocals, programming, guitar, percussion, misc
Guenter Schulz- guitars, programming

add. personnel
Raymond Watts- lead vocals on 'spit sperm', 'unfit'
Abby Travis- vocals, bass
Nivek Ogre- lead vocals on 'torture'
Tim Skold- lead vocals on 'anarchy'
Micheal Bassin- guitar
William Rieflin- drums, percussion, misc
Amy Denio- saxophones

ADIOS- 1999

KMFDM's tenth and supposedly final album 'Adios' shipped on April 20th 1999 after many delays. The album receieve mixed reviews in general, perhaps perplexed by the new sounds KMFDM were experimenting with. Adios was KMFDM's final album on Waxtrax!/TVT Records and the band was very relieved to leave the label after their decline in business and promotion. The contract was over. The album recieved hardly any publicity from the part of TVT and because the band had allready broken up before its release, there was no tour. Many people feel that the album was a disapointment because of Tim Skold's big contribution and a lot of others complained of the near lack of guitar work. 'Adios' seems like a prelude to the band that would become MDFMK; Sascha and Tim. Theres still some of that old KMFDM sound to keep fans happy. 'D.I.Y.' is a favorite with most and is a nostagic trip down the bands past. The guests this time around include 80's punk musician Nina Hagen and Nivek Ogre. This album would prove to be the last time En Esch worked with KMFDM.

Tracklist:

1. Adios
2. Sycophant
3. D.I.Y.
4. Today
5. Witness
6. R.U. OK?
7. That's All
8. Full Worm Garden
9. Rubicon
10. Bereit

Personnel
Sascha Konietzko- vocals, programming, add. guitar
Tim Skold- vocals, programming, bass

add. personnel
Guenter Schulz- guitars
En Esch- vocals, add.programming, percussion
Nivek Ogre- lead vocals on 'that's all', 'full worm garden'
Nina Hagen- lead vocals on 'witness'
William Rieflin- programming
Frank Chotai- add. programming
Paul De Carli- digital editing
Cheryl WIlson- backing vocals