Opium is what some believe to be the debut album by KMFDM, originally released in 1984. It is not
that, however, it is so much more.
Opium was originally circulated among a group of fellow-patrons in the underground scene of Ham-
burg in 1984 as a home taped run of a handful of cassette-tapes. There never existed any actual
master tapes, let alone any professional equipment to record the album. In the early 90’s, one of
the original cassette tapes, sharing a sealed leaden box with a rotting sausage, was salvaged from
a WWII air-raid-shelter, flooded with sewage during the aftermath of a fire which had ravaged the
building above. The tape, though not in perfect condition, contained everything that Opium would
be, the “missing link to ‘Where did KMFDM even come from in the first place?’,” which Sascha
Konietzko said, would be missed out on, if a new listener to KMFDM began with “What do you
know, Deutschland? – their ‘official’ debut album.
“Opium” shows the roots of KMFDM, from the bold experimentation and dissonant sound effects,
but contained within these tracks is the wellspring from which the KMFDM “ultra heavy beat” was
born. With a career spanning 30 years, KMFDM is one of the most well-known and longest running
bands in industrial rock.
Tracks:
01 Fix Me up 02 Splatter 03 The Smell 04 Helmut Mein Helmut 05 Warp’d 06 Penetration
07 Entschuldigung 08 Cu*tboy 09 Raf Ok 10 Mating Sounds of Helicopters