History Music / KMFDM

''KMFDM'' is an {{Industrial}} Rock / IndustrialMetal band, formed in Paris on February 29, 1984. It was originally a performance art group started by Sascha Konietzko and Udo Sturm, but as Konietzko was more interested in studio recordings he began collaborating with Raymond Watts and En Esch (real name Nicklaus Schandelmaier).

->''"[[FunWithAcronyms Kein Mitleid Fur Die Mehrheit]]!"''

->''"Kein Mitleid Fur Die Mehrheit!"''

The band usually has a revolving lineup -- but their latest line-up has been stable for the last four albums -- which consists of Sascha Konietzko, Lucia Cifarelli, Jules Hodgson, Andy Selway, and Steve White. Additionally, Konietzko is the only member to appear on every album.

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: Being an {{Industrial}} / IndustrialMetal band, this is a given. They mostly mix Electro Punk, Industrial Dance, and ThrashMetal but {{Funk}}, UsefulNotes/{{Punk}}, {{Industrial}}, [[{{Reggae}} Dub,]] HipHop, and SynthPop influences have appeared before. "Virus (Dub)" has {{Rocksteady}} influences.

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: Being an {{Industrial}} / IndustrialMetal band, this is a given. They mostly mix Electro Punk, Industrial Dance, and ThrashMetal but {{Funk}}, {{Punk}}, {{Industrial}}, {{Dub}}, HipHop and SynthPop influences have appeared before. "Virus (Dub)" has {{Rocksteady}} influences.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Opium'' is straight forward {{Industrial}}, their next two albums turned into proto-EBM, and their next few were a mixture of IndustrialMetal and more dance-influenced fare. ''Angst'' was the first album to consist mainly of Metal songs.

* {{Eagleland}}: "New American Century," "Sex on the Flag," and most of ''WWIII'' are pretty blatant type 2's.

* ''Sin, Sex & Salvation'' (EP with PIG) (1994)

** En Esch has covered "Work for Love" by Music/{{Ministry}}, and collaborated with Music/TerminalSect for a cover of "Who Made Who" by Music/{{ACDC}}.

** ''Slick Idiot'' also covers "A Drug Against War" sometimes as well as the Music/ErrolBrown song "Everybody's a Winner."

* CoverVersion: "Los Ninos del Parque" by ''Liaisons Dangereuses,'' "Mini Mini Mini" by Music/JacquesDutronc, "Mysterious Ways" by Music/{{U2}}, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" by Music/NancySinatra, "Being Boiled" by Music/TheHumanLeague, "Crazy Horses" by Music/TheOsmonds, "Material Girl" by Music/{{Madonna}}, and "Godlight" by Music/PattiSmith.

+Music/ThrobbingGristle, Music/PinkFloyd, Music/FrankZappa, Music/DeepPurple, Music/{{Motorhead}}, Music/NineInchNails, The Pop Group, Mark Stewart and the Mafia, DAF, Liasons Dangerouses, Music/{{Ministry}}, and [[Music/MarcBolan T. Rex]]]

* BreakupSong: KMFDM of all people have several: "Every Day's a Good Day," "Adios," "Strut," and possibly "En Esch."

* FullCircleRevolution: "Anarchy" is about one
* GreatestHitsAlbum: ''Greatest Shit''/''Würst'' is a collection of remixed versions of some of KMFDM's best known tracks.
* HiddenTrack: "Fairy" on ''Xtort'' and "Nihil" on, well, ''Nihil''
* IAmTheBand: Sascha and En Esch are this, as well as the [[FaceOfTheBand Faces of the Band]], as noted above.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Starting with ''UAIOE'' and breaking the chain with ''Hau Ruck'' (originally named FUBAR, which would have kept the five-letter album title tradition going). ''Tohuvabohu'' came close to resuming the tradition with five syllables in the title. Their album ''Blitz'' returned to the tradition, but ''Our Time Has Come'' appears to have departed from it once again.
* InitialismTitle: Their name is an initialism of Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid, the nonsensical German phrase meaning 'no majority for the pity' - though it's often translated roughly as 'no mercy for the masses' (which would be Kein ''Mitleid'' Für Die ''Mehrheit''). [[http://web.archive.org/web/20071009101108/http://www.sonicenvelope.com/thread2.html And then there's all the fan-suggested names...]]
* {{Industrial}}: One of the key bands in the genre. Their first album ''Opium'' qualifies as Old-School Industrial. ''Don't Blow Your Top'' and ''What Do You Know, Deutschland?'' sound like [[UrExample prototypical]] EBM, but the genre already existed by then. Good portions of ''UAIOE'', ''Money'', and ''Naive'' sound like this too. Their post-''Tohuvabohu'' albums have distinct Electro-Industrial influences.
* IndustrialMetal: Most of their 90s and 2000s work is this, though some of it Electro-Industrial. Their newest albums are pretty evenly split between the two genres.
* IntercourseWithYou: "UAIOE", "Loving Can Be an Art", "Liebesleid", "Hole in the Wall", "Conillion"
* InTheStyleOf: All of their covers are done in their traditional style except for "Mysterious Ways" which is done like a straight forward cover
* IronicNurseryTune: "The Death And Burial of C.R." from ''WTF?!'' is the nursery rhyme "Who Killed Cock Robin?" set to [[OminousMusicBoxTune really fucking creepy music]].
* {{Irony}}: Despite their hatred of MTV, they appeared no 120 minutes in 1992. on top of that the "A Drug Against War" appeared on ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead''.
** "Intro" is the last track on ''WWIII''
* KangarooCourt: "Rebels In Kontrol" mentions this in a later part of the song resembling a news broadcast, which says that "the world's political leaders have been detained and will be tried by kangaroo courts for their committed crimes against humanity". The segment ends with Lucia screaming 'Make the rules up as we go!'
* KillItWithFire: "Ultra"
* LaResistance: "Anarchy", "Jihad", "New American Century", "Not in My Name", "Rebels in Kontrol"
* ListSong: "Inane". Also a SongOfSongTitles as it includes the name of every album and single they had released at the time.
** "Kunst" is this as well, using titles from songs that were created both before and after Xtort.

* LyricalDissonance: "Juke Joint Jezebel" "Don't Blow Your Top" "Everyday's a Good Day" etc.
* MadnessMantra: "Rip The System" and "Die Now, Live Later"
* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: The early stuff isn't even applicable, due to (mostly) lacking guitars. The later (UAIOE onwards) mostly hovers around 6-7, with a few (ie "A Drug Against War", "Son of a Gun") going up to the 8-10 range and a few (ie "Stray Bullet", "Achtung!") around 4-5.
** The hidden track on ''Nihil'' is a pretty standard 11
* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: Being an {{Industrial}}[=/=]IndustrialMetal band, this is a given. They mostly mix Electro Punk, Industrial Dance, and ThrashMetal but {{Funk}}, {{Punk}}, {{Industrial}}, {{Dub}}, HipHop and SynthPop influences have appeared before. "Virus (Dub)" has {{Rocksteady}} influences.
* NewSoundAlbum: ''UAIOE'' marked the band's transition from straightforward {{Industrial}} to IndustrialMetal. Then there was ''Symbols'' which was divided between IndustrialMetal and more Electro-Industrial-styled music. They went back to straight IndustrialMetal when they reformed but eventually started combining it with Electro-Industrial (again) on ''Blitz'', which they've kept on doing since then.
* ObligatoryBondageSong: "Take it Like a Man", "Liebesleid", and "Hole in the Wall"
* OminousMusicBoxTune: "The Death and Burial of C.R." and the opening of "Day of Light"

''KMFDM'' is an {{Industrial}}Rock / IndustrialMetal band, formed in Paris on February 29, 1984. It was originally a performance art group started by Sascha Konietzko and Udo Sturm, but as Konietzko was more interested in studio recordings he began collaborating with Raymond Watts and En Esch (real name Nicklaus Schandelmaier).

+Music/ThrobbingGristle, Music/PinkFloyd, Music/FrankZappa, Music/DeepPurple, Music/{{Motorhead}}, Music/NineInchNails, The Pop Group, Mark Stewart and the Mafia, DAF, Liasons Dangerouses, Music/{{Ministry}}, and [[Music/MarcBolan T. Rex]]

+Music/ThrobbingGristle, Music/PinkFloyd, Music/FrankZappa, Music/DeepPurple, Music/{{Motorhead}}, Music/NineInchNails, The Pop Group, Mark Stewart and the Mafia, DAF, Liasons Dangerouses, Music/{{Ministry}}, and [[Music/MarcBolan T-Rex.]

->''"Kein Mitleid Für Die Mehrheit!"''

[=KMFDM=] is an {{industrial}} rock/[[IndustrialMetal metal]] band, formed in Paris on February 29, 1984. It was originally a performance art group started by Sascha Konietzko and Udo Sturm, but as Konietzko was more interested in studio recordings he began collaborating with Raymond Watts and En Esch (real name Nicklaus Schandelmaier).

They released eleven albums and split up in 1999, citing creative differences. Konietzko was joined by former contributor Tim Skold and vocalist Lucia Cifarelli as MDFMK, and released one self-titled album, before reforming as KMFDM in 2002 - since then they have released five albums, and remastered versions of their previous discography.

The band usually has a revolving lineup - but their latest lineup has been stable for the last four albums - which consists of Sascha Konietzko, Lucia Cifarelli, Jules Hodgson, Andy Selway and Steve White. Additionally, Konietzko is the only member to appear on every album.

[[AC:Discography:]]

* ''Naïve'' (1990)

* ''Greatest Shit'' (2010) (also released as ''Würst'' with edited cover art)

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: "Juke Joint Jezebel"
* AltumVidetur: The choruses of "Tohuvabohu"
* AscendedMeme: Some of the fake acronyms for KMFDM ("Kill Motherfucking Music/DepecheMode", most notably) made up by fans have been referenced in both "Sucks" and "Kunst".
* AwesomeMcCoolname: Sascha "Käpt'n K" Konietzko
* AxCrazy: "Thrash Up!", "Me and My Gun"
* BaldOfAwesome: En Esch and Sascha himself, for awhile.
* BerserkButton: Do '''NOT''' mention Nazis, Columbine, or MTV around Sascha.
* BilingualBonus: Among other languages, some songs are in German ("Leid und Elend"), Italian ("Panzerfaust"), Latin (the chorus of "Tohuvabohu"), Russian ("Davai"), Spanish (their cover of "Los Niños Del Parque"), et cetera. Sascha himself speaks English, Russian, and German fluently.
* BizarreInstrument[=/=]EverythingIsAnInstrument: Whipping, Banging, Breaking stuff, a drill, a vacuum cleaner, Lawnchairs, rocks, rubble, dirt, metal percussion, the Soviet synth, the scratch Piano, a party baloon solo, and a cockpit voice recorder.

* BreakupSong: KMFDM of all people have several, "Every Day's a Good Day", "Adios", "Strut", and possibly "En Esch"
* BrickJoke: "Inane" contains the line "German engineering, astounding ingenuity / Over a decade of conceptual continuity", which is updated in "Kunst" to "twenty-nine years of conceptual continuity".
** In "Virus", the listener is directed to check the resistance in their cells, "Apathy" contains the lyric: "No resistance in the cells"
* CallBack: The opening line of "Professional Killer" is "Conquer Your World" which is also the name of a song by Sascha's side project Excessive Force
* TheCameo: Nivek Ogre on ''Symbols'' and ''Adios'', Koichi Fukuda and Sebastian Komor on ''WTF?!'', and F.M. Einheit on ''Xtort''
** Peter Murphy as well on a rare version of "Today"

** Rip The System was the band's during the En Esch era along with "I'm a sick, sick man, but I got class, 'coz you only gain respect when you're kickin' ass"
* ContemptibleCover: Kunst's cover features a topless woman cutting a Christian cross in half with a chainsaw. When the cover for the album was announced on the band's Facebook page, it was actually deleted because it violated the terms of use.
** Many of their covers feature someone being murdered or [[JustForPun attacked]].

** The compilation Agogo features the Silhouette of a nude woman dancing over a factory with bombers flying overhead. this is one of the tamer ones.

** Greatest Shit/Wurst has two nude women firing weapons.

* CoverVersion: "Los Ninos del Parque" by LiaisonsDangerueses, "Mini Mini Mini" by JacquesDutronc, "Mysterious Ways" by Music/{{U2}}, "These Boots are made for Walkin" by NancySinatra, "Being Boiled" by Music/TheHumanLeague, ""Crazy Horses" by TheOsmonds, Material Girl by Music/{{Madonna}}, "Godlight" by Music/PattiSmith
** Sascha once did a solo cover of "Down In It" by Music/NineInchNails.
** On a KMFDM tribute album Raymond Watts covered "Disobedience" (Technically covering himself), and Gunter Shultz covered "Light". ** ** Slick Idiot also covers "A Drug Against War" sometimes as well as the Music/ErrolBrown song "Everybody's a Winner"
** Gunter Schultz and En Esch collaborated on covers of "Head Like a Hole" and "Terrible Lie" by Music/NineInchNails and "Rhinoceros" by Music/SmashingPumpkins
** En Esch has covered "Work for Love" by Music/{{Ministry}}, and collaborated with Music/TerminalSect for a cover of "Who Made Who" by Music/{{ACDC}}
** PIG has cover "War Pigs" by Music/BlackSabbath, "Hello Hooray" by Music/AliceCooper, "Just Like You" by Music/{{Ministry}}, "Head Like a Hole" by Music/NineInchNails, and "1979" by Music/SmashingPumpkins
* {{Eagleland}}: "New American Century", "Sex on the Flag", and most of ''WWIII'' are pretty blatant type 2's
* EarlyBirdCameo: Tim Skold on ''Symbols'', William Wilson on ''WTF?!'' and "Day of Light"
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Opium'' is straight forward {{Industrial}}, then their next two albums turned into proto-EBM and their next few were a mixture of IndustrialMetal and more dance-influenced fare. ''Angst'' was the first album to consist mainly of Metal songs.
* EleventhHourRanger: Tim Skold when he first joined the band. Subverted when he became a member of MDFMK and rejoined temporarily when KMFDM reformed. He then left and came back for a few collaborations years later

+Music/ThrobbingGristle, Music/PinkFloyd, Music/FrankZappa, Music/DeepPurple, Music/{{Motorhead}}, Music/NineInchNails, Music/ThePopGroup, Music/MarkStewartAndTheMafia, Music/{{DAF}}, Music/LiasonsDangerouses, Music/{{Ministry}}, Music/{{TRex}}
]

* OppressiveStatesOfAmerica: Most of their ProtestSongs are about this, most notably ''WWIII''.
* PissTakeRap: "Murder" and "Rules".

* ProtestSong: "Terror", "Glory", "A Drug Against War/Wall Street", Most of ''WWIII'', "New American Century", "Not in My Name", "Anarchy", "Pussy Riot", "Rebels in Kontrol", "The Problem", "No Peace", "Dogma", "Murder", "Friede", "Skurk", "Preach/Prevert", "Urban Monkey Warfare", "Spit or Swallow", "Free Your Hate", "Feed Our Fame", "Spectre", "Bait & Switch", "Take 'm Out", "Me and My Gun", "That's All", "Rubicon", "Full Worm Garden" arguably "Lynchmob".

* RapRock: "Rules", "Murder", and "Money"
* ReligionRantSong: "People of the Lie", "Murder", "Beast", "Disobediance", "Godlike", "Jihad", "Preach/Pervert", "Viva La Mort", "I Will Pray", "Sex on the Flag", "Help Us/Save Us/Take Us Away", "Die Now, Live Later".
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: "Rubicon", "Rebels in Kontrol", "More & Faster" and the cover of ''Our Time Will Come''.
** Inverted with "Anarchy", "Rebels in Kontrol", and "Free Your Hate", they are criticisms of violent revolution.
* {{Sampling}}: "Godlike" samples a guitar riff from "Angel of Death" by Slayer, "Liebesleid" samples "O Fortuna" and ''WWIII'' uses a lot of George W. Bush samples and a sample of one of Hitler's speeches.
* SanitySlippageSong: "Brute", "Thrash Up!", "Flesh", "Ultra", "Piggybank", "Disgust", "R.U,OK?", "Me and My Gun", "Revolution", "Spit Sperm", the chorus of "Terror", half of ''Hau Ruck'' ("Ready to Blow", "You're No Good", "Auf Wiederseh'n", and "Real Thing")
** The most disturbing was probably "Ooh La La".
* SelfDeprecation: As mentioned earlier, "KMFDM sucks" is common among the fans thanks to the song "Sucks" off of the ''Angst'' album; it's typically chanted live to announce the audience wants an encore or on Website/YouTube videos. Like "Music/{{Primus}} sucks", it usually upsets some fans that aren't aware of the joke.
* SelfParody: "Light", "Megalomaniac", "Sucks", "Inane", "Intro", "Bitches"...
* SixthRanger: William Wilson, Tim Skold (see EleventhHourRanger above) and Raymond Watts (Twice).
* ShoutOut: The credits of ''Blitz'' lampshades the [[Music/GeorgeClinton P-funk]] style bass riff.

** "Itchy Bitchy" references Music/BobMarley's "No Woman No Cry".
** Their face book page lists their hometown as [[ComicBook/JudgeDredd Mega-City One]].
** "Don't Blow Your Top" consists entirely of lyrics from Music/FrankZappa songs. "conceptual continuity" is mentioned in "Inane" and "Kunst"; "Conceptual continuity" is what Zappa called it when he made references to his own songs.
* SlasherSmile: The cover of ''UAIOE''
* SpokenWordInMusic: "Dogma", "Fairy", "Terror", "Not In My Name", "Rebels in Kontrol", "Death & Burial of C.R.", "Inane"
* StartMyOwn: After KMFDM broke up, En Esch and Gunter Shultz formed Slick Idiot. Raymond Watts, when not working with them, would focus on his solo project, PIG
* StrawNihilist: "Beast" is a satirization of this trope
* StupidStatementDanceMix: "We Must Awaken" and "What Do You Know?".

** The symbols are used in the track "Down And Out" as a SoundEffectBleep.

** The original mix of "Go to Hell" is called the "Fuck MTV Mix". [[{{Understatement}} Sascha doesn't think very highly of MTV.]]
** "Don't Blow Your Top" seems to be a pretty abrasive take that towards record companies
* ThrashMetal / SpeedMetal: The ''Agogo'' version of "Godlike", "A Drug Against War", "Hole in the Wall", "Glory", "Sad Und Craft", "Apathy", "Son of a Gun", "Sad Und Kraft""WWIII", "Bullets, Bombs and Bigotry", "Every Day's a Good Day" and "Thrash Up!" (Sort of). They're influenced by the genres in question relatively often.

** Examples: "Megalomaniac", "D.I.Y.", "Sucks", "A Drug Against War", "Inane", "Back in the USSA", et cetera.

* WordSaladLyrics: "Megalomaniac", "Torture", "Stray Bullet", half the songs on ''Xtort'' (specifically "Rules", "Blame", "Ikons"; "Power" and "Craze"), "Sycophant", "UAIOE", The chorus of "Urban Monkey Warfare", and the title track of ''Tohuvabohu''.
* XtremeKoolLetterz: The songs "Krank", "Ikons", "R.U.OK?" and "Rebels in Kontrol", as well as the albums Xtort and Attak.

** "Don't Blow Your Top" consists entirely of lyrics from Music/FrankZappa songs.

** "Don't Blow Your Top" seems to be a pretty abraasive take that towards record companies

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Opium'' is straight forward {{Industrial}}, then thier next two albums turned into proto-EBM and their next few were mostly dance music with some metal songs thrown in. ''Angst'' was the first album to consist mainly of metal songs.

* HeavyMetal: "Search & Destroy", "Trust", "Thrash Up!", "En Esch", "Inane"

* {{Industrial}}: Their first album ''Opium'' definitely qualifies. ''Don't Blow Your Top'' and ''What Do You Know, Deutschland?'' sound like UrExamples of EBM but the genre already existed by then. Good portions of ''UAIOE'', ''Money'', and ''Naive'' sound like this too. Their post-''Tohuvabohu'' albums have distinct Electro-Industrial influences.

* NewSoundAlbum: ''UAIOE'' marked the band's transition from straightforward {{Industrial}} to IndustrialMetal. Then there was ''Symbols'' which was a change to electronic music. They went back to Industrial Metal when they reformed but then changed to future pop on ''Blitz'' although there were still one or two metal songs between the next few albums.

* SpeedMetal: "Apathy", "A Drug Against War"/"A Drug Against Wall Street", "Son of a Gun", "Sad Und Kraft", "Search and Destroy", "WWIII", "Bullets, Bombs and Bigotry", and "Every Day's a Good Day"

* ThrashMetal: The ''Agogo'' version of "Godlike", "Hole in the Wall", "Glory", "Sad Und Craft", "Apathy" and "Thrash Up!" (Sort of)

* CreatorCouple: Sascha and Lucia

* ThePeteBest: Ton Giest. They played on the first album and we dont know much else about them. And then there is Udo Sturm who was a member while they did performance art but left when they became a band.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: "Hole in the Wall" is the lyrics of "Liebesleid" translated into English, they also have similar guitar riffs
** The guitar riffs to "Pretty Vacant" by Music/SexPistols and "Anarchy" are practically the same thing.

+Music/ThrobbingGristle, Music/PinkFloyd, Music/FrankZappa, Music/DeepPurple, Music/{{Motorhead}}, Music/NineInchNails, Music/ThePopGroup, Music/MarkStewartAndTheMafia, Music/{{DAF}}, Music/LiasonsDangerouses, Music/{{Ministry}}

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: Being an {{Industrial}}[=/=]IndustrialMetal band, this is a given. They mostly mix Electro Punk, Industrial Dance, and ThrashMetal but {{Funk}}, {{Punk}}, {{Industrial}}, HipHop and SynthPop influences have appeared before. "Virus (Dub)" has {{Rocksteady}} influences.

+Music/ThrobbingGristle, Music/PinkFloyd, Music/FrankZappa, Music/DeepPurple, Music/{{Motorhead}}, Music/NineInchNails, Music/ThePopGroup, Music/MarkStewartAndTheMafia, Music/{{DAF}} Music/LiasonsDangerouses, Music/{{DAF}}

* CoverVersion: "Los Ninos del Parque" by LiaisonsDangerueses, "Mini Mini Mini" by JacquesDutronc, "Mysterious Ways" by Music/{{U2}}, "These Boots are made for Walkin" by NancySinatra, "Being Boiled" by Music/TheHumanLeague, ""Crazy Horses" by TheOsmonds, Material Girl by Music/{{Madonna}}.

* {{Industrial}}: Their first album ''Opium'' definitely qualifies. ''Don't Blow Your Top'' and ''What Do You Know, Deutschland?'' sound like UrExamples of EBM but the genre already existed by then. Good portions of ''UAIOE'', ''Money'', and ''Naive'' sound like this too. Their post-''Tohuvabohu'' albums are starting to sound like future pop.
* IndustrialMetal: A few songs on ''UAIOE'', ''Naive'' and ''Angst'', ''Nihil'' and ''Xtort'', and everything from ''Boots'' until ''Tohuvabohu'' everything else is mostly electro-industrial

* ThrashMetal: "Godlike", "Hole in the Wall", "Glory", "Sad Und Craft", "Apathy" and "Thrash Up!" (Sort of)

+Music/ThrobbingGristle, Music/PinkFloyd, Music/FrankZappa, Music/DeepPurple, Music/{{Motorhead}}, Music/NineInchNails, Music/ThePopGroup, Music/MarkStewartAndTheMafia, Music/{{DAF}} Music/LiasonsDangerouses, Music{{/DAF}}

+Music/ThrobbingGristle, Music/PinkFloyd, Music/FrankZappa