Unitron KMFDM - Opium

"Opium" is the debut studio album from industrial metal/rock band KMFDM released in the form of a limited run of cassettes before being remastered many years later. For fans of the majority of their output, there isn't much metal to be found here, having only a handful of metal moments.

While only having some metal elements, that still makes this quite the revolutionary release. Ministry was a synth-pop group at this time, Godflesh wasn't around yet, so at the time this was a very different release. Industrial was still a new genre, and nobody really heard many rock/metal elements being added. So I'd say this is most likely one of the biggest influences on industrial metal along with Killing Joke. The metal elements are most prevalent in the opening song, "Fix Me Up" and the electro-industrial attack of "Entschuldigung". "Raf Ok" has the feeling of an atmospheric metal song, and is easily my favorite from the album.

For the most part though, this is noisy industrial rock with some real foot-tapping beats. Just add guitar, and "Helmut Mein Helmut" would sound right at home on one of their later albums. "Penetration" sounds like an industrial blues dirge, with a slow finger-snapping beat and distorted heavy blues riff. The band's signature aggressive snide vocals are here, along with some deeper vocals and voice samples. "The Smell" and "Cuntboy" are a couple other really catchy songs, the latter having a cool guitar solo with many distortion effects.

While not of the same levels of classics like Angst, Nihil, and Hau Ruck, Opium is still a pretty good debut, and was quite the innovative release along with being a good album. It can get a bit too noisy sometimes for my tastes, but the band already has some cool riffs and beats going here. If you want to hear the start of not only KMFDM but industrial metal, this is a must-listen. Hope you found this review helpful.

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