Published by Alessandro Violante on February 17, 2026
“Freedom is not a reward for good behavior – It’s a human right”. Nowadays, when many people inside the scene think about industrial music as of instrumental dark danceable music, it’s quite uncommon listening to such political lyrics inside this kind of music.
This year, KMFDM (read our interview here) are celebrating more than 40 years (42 since their first release Opium) of releasing and playing industrial rock music where their political lyrics are the primary element of their music, not a mere detail. After all these years and after almost 25 full length albums, we’re still lucky to be able to say that a new KMFDM album is one of the few things we can be sure of, and now, more than ever, in the dark times we live, we need them and their music. Especially, we need their music to think about what’s wrong with our society and what we should try to change, in a world where politics is out fashioned not only in underground music but in our daily lives.
Which album title, in 2026, could have been stronger than ENEMY? The album opens with the lyrics “We don’t need no false leaders – No place for hypocrisy – No room for discrimination – Distinction through diversity”. That’s exactly what we could expect from KMFDM and that’s what we should repeat everyday to ourselves when we wake up everyday to do our daily jobs often not considering other people’s lives.
Often, people living in the Algorithms-age avoid talking about politics with each other to prevent discussions this topic could generate and, in doing so, we slowly detach ourselves from politics also in our private lives. Since their early years, KMFDM have criticized religion, politics and society, and we should be thankful to them for still doing it with this clarity.
Given this fundamental premise, we can listen to their new album with an ear to their “Ultra Heavy Beat” and another to their highly meaningful lyrics.
ENEMY is what industrial rock should sound like, with plenty of heavy riffs and solos alongside strong industrial beats (of course, dub), cyberpunk synth lines (maybe they’re currently the most cyberpunk band) and some electronica influences. Two of the most interesting KMFDM trademarks have always been that of sampling their own songs and of releasing new versions of their older songs.
Here in ENEMY, in Yoü, Light has been sampled, and we can listen to its main riff and its beat. Light is the opening track of their album Angst, released in 1993, and considered one of their most relevant albums. In Yoü, Annabella Konietzko has contributed as an artist and as a songwriter. (The Konietzko family truly believes in what they do, otherwise they couldn’t have made it for more than 40 years).
Also in L’Etat, having strong political French lyrics (“L’égalité de la justice est une plaisanterie – L’obéissance totale est votre assurance-vie”), the band has probably sampled their song Go to hell, included in their album NAÏVE, released in 1990. ENEMY also includes a new version of Stray Bullet (originally included into their album Symbols, released in 1997), here paying their homage to that Jamaican dub sound always having been a trademark of their music. That same dub influence is clear in Catch & Kill, sung by Lucia Cifarelli.
Cifarelli also sings in A Okay, a song with melodic synth lines counterposed to the power of the lyrics (“Pop goes the weasel”), the “Ultra Heavy Beat” of Vampyr and Oubliette, another great song with all the KMFDM trademarks and opening 90s sounds.
This extremely versatile release is completed by Outernational Intervention, one of the most hardcore-sounding songs of their career (not so far, in terms of energy, from their old school classic A drug against war, included in the aforementioned album Angst), with its futuristic sounds and its lyrics being a metaphor of current politics.
The instrumental prog-like Gun Quarter Sue is surely the most powerful song of the release, with its prog-metal riffing and drum patterns. The closing song The Second Coming is another convincing electronic dub-influenced output where Sascha K. sings like a Blade Runner storyteller putting ourselves in front of the world we live in.
After more than four decades, KMFDM has still been able to release such an incredibly versatile and meaningful record, where each song is different from the other. Who else could make the same? Probably no one else.
To celebrate this incredible milestone, the result of always practicing what preaching, KMFDM will headline a European tour with I Ya Toyah, playing some gigs in 2026 and some others in 2027. The tour has been rescheduled due to some illness problems.
If you’re in Europe, don’t miss their upcoming shows, and listen carefully to their new album.
Label: Metropolis
Rating: 9