Dropping almost exactly two years after their previous album, Enemy reaffirms KMFDM’s tireless pace in creating new material. Their commitment to heavy riffs has likewise never been stronger as they bring aboard guitarist Tidor Nieddu here to revitalise the thumping sounds the band has become known for in their modern works.
You can really feel the trudge of those heavy riffs on the title track. It’s KMFDM by the way of Accept — a bitterly political and heavy number howling at the many injustices of our current world state. It’s arguably a little weaker lyrically than the title tracks from the last three KMFDM records, but similar to Paradise, it does succeed in showcasing the band’s harder tendencies.
The rest of the album is more playful and experimental than the harsh opening track would have you believe, with L’Etat (is that five or six characters?) evoking the familiar sounds of 1997’s Anarchy, only this time in French! Another welcome surprise comes from vocalist Annabella Konietzko — last heard teaching us “German for Dummies” on 2014’s Genau — who is all grown up and ready to contribute her impish tones to YOÜ. It’s a song that certainly grabs your attention, even if it does so by saying, “I hope your bitch ass boyfriend cheats on you.” That line breaks my immersion whenever I hear it, but then you could argue it suits KMFDM’s cheekier tendencies. As always, your mileage may vary!
“Miss Annabella” does sound great, though. I wonder if her voice will one day represent the band, although she’ll have get past her mother (Lucia Cifarelli) whose viciously elegant voice appears throughout this album on techno-inspired cuts like Oubliette (arguably the best track here) and Vampyr. Following this is the absurd Outernational Intervention — the sort of wacky UFO song that, seemingly, no KMFDM album is complete without. The peculiar deviations in tone continue with Lucia singing “Pop goes the weasel” on A Okay.
There is the question of whether the album loses something during its second half. Stray Bullet 2.0 suggests so as it sounds like an unnecessary outtake from 2020’s reggae tribute album, In Dub. If KMFDM insist on remaking one of their old tracks on every new album, I’d prefer they’d start with 1989’s Virus. (Yes, that’s a 100% biased take, I love that song!)
Catch and Kill features another fired-up Cifarelli performance, followed by Gun Quarter Sue — a bopping instrumental number which again makes it hard to fault the sheer variety on offer here. For a closer we have The Second Coming featuring front man Sascha Konietzko doing a musical rendition of a classic Yeats poem of the same name. The dark material is as timeless and chilling as you’d like, but the distorted backing track will make the song practically unlistenable for some people. It’s not the sort of cut you’ll be happy to hear randomly pop up on your car playlist, put it that way.
Overall, it’s tough to say if the highs out-high the lows here. Like most of KMFDM’s output since the 2010’s began, Enemy is a grower that needs time to appreciate. It’s good to see the group continue to experiment and push themselves, though, so let’s hope by 2028 we’ll be hearing the ultra heavy beat in good form once more.
Enemy on Bandcamp »

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