Opium
Opium is where KMFDM's story begins: a demo album by the German industrial band, issued on cassette in 1984. It was given an official CD release in 2002 through Firstworld, so many listeners met it long after the band had built a catalogue of more than twenty studio albums that followed.
It is also something of an oddity in the band's visual history. Only one other studio album, Nihil, joins it in lacking cover artwork by the pop artist Brute!. Instead, the sleeve carries a picture of Irina Gorbachev, daughter of Mikhail Gorbachev, to whom the band had written asking for a visit to Moscow. For anyone tracing the group's electronic, post-industrial roots, it is the natural place to start.
Opium: tracklist and credits
10 tracks · 43:49Tracklist
- 1PenetrationGeist, Konietzko, Watts
- 2SplatterGeist, Konietzko, Watts
- 3Fix Me UpGeist, Konietzko, Watts
- 4Get It OnGeist, Konietzko, Watts
- 5Mating Sounds of HelicoptersGeist, Konietzko, Watts
- 6Warp’dGeist, Konietzko, Watts
- 7Your Monkey’s BusinessGeist, Konietzko, Watts
- 8Helmut mein HelmutGeist, Konietzko, Watts
- 9CuntboyGeist, Konietzko, Watts
- 10The SmellGeist, Konietzko, Watts
- Recorded at
- Pft Brd, Blankenese
- Recorded
- June 1984
- Mastered by
- Chris Shepard
- Labels
- [no label], Firstworld
- Length
- 43:49
Line-up
- Ton Geist · guitar family · guest
- Sascha Konietzko · bass guitar, synthesizer, lead vocals
- Raymond Watts · membranophone · guest
From MusicBrainz and Wikipedia. Only what the sources record is shown.
More from KMFDM
Full discography →
![[symbols] by KMFDM, album cover](/img/57bfc32b-4b60-37cc-bd75-a83936127361/300)
The best of 1984
All of 1984 →
More on [no label]
The label →
Releases and pressings
How we know the release date sources disagree on the year (1984, 2002)
| Source | Date | Note |
|---|---|---|
| MusicBrainz | 1984 | |
| Wikipedia infobox | 1984 | |
| Wikidata | 2002 |
3 editions
| Date | Country | Label | Barcode | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | DE | [no label] | original | |
| 2002 | US | KMFDM Records | other | |
| 22 October 2013 | XW | Metropolis Records | other |
Cover art sources
deezer · upscaled: major: best source 1200x1200, upscaled to 1500 (x1.25)
| Source | Size | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| deezer ✓ | 1200×1200 | upscaled: major: best source 1200x1200, upscaled to 1500 (x1.25) |
| fanarttv | 1000×1000 | upscaled |
| coverartarchive | 953×953 | upscaled |