Opium (KMFDM album)

Opium is a demo album by German industrial band KMFDM from 1984, officially released in 2002 by Firstworld. It is one of only two KMFDM studio albums (the other being Nihil) that does not feature cover artwork by pop artist Brute!.

The original 1984 cassette's authenticity has been questioned by fans, which was further complicated by a social media post by former member Raymond Watts, who claimed that Opium was created from scratch in the 1990s. The supposed original version of Opium featured a different tracklisting, and its details were shared by KMFDM initially in 1997.

Release
Sascha Konietzko has claimed that Opium was originally released in a limited run of cassettes and distributed through the Hamburg club scene in 1984. In the early 2000s, the original 8-track tapes were salvaged from a house, after surviving a fire and years of sitting in damp boxes. This had left them in a damaged state. Konietzko further claims that he salvaged what information was still intact on the tapes, and then set about re-creating the tracks. This included reprogramming drums on some tracks with the original sounds, or sounds close to the original.

In a 2007 interview with Outburn Magazine, Konietzko said the Opium remaster "...is going to provide the missing link to 'Where did KMFDM even come from in the first place?'.  If you begin with What Do You Know, Deutschland? you kind of skip the first part."

Despite Konietzko's claims, fan were dubious about the authenticity of the re-release. Musically, it sounded far more advanced than any other material from the era (84–86 or What Do You Know, Deutschland?), and it was conveniently released at a time when Konietzko was trying to write co-founder En Esch out of KMFDM's history. During an online feud between Konietzko and Raymond Watts in 2022, Watts revealed that "contrary to bullshit myth making stories about fires and lost tapes, Opium was recorded in the mid 90s by Bill Rieflin, Konietzko and me." Neither he nor Konietzko have spoken further about the album, so its true origins remain unconfirmed.

Personnel

 * Sascha Konietzko – bass, vocals, guitar, synths, programming
 * Raymond Watts – vocals, programming
 * Ton Geist – additional guitars