page_title: KMFDM
section_title: Peak popularity (1994–99)
hierarchical_section_title: KMFDM / History / Peak popularity (1994–99)
caption_attribution_description: This photo is a modified version of File:Pigface 1991.jpg. I am copying the licensing information from that page.
context_page_description: KMFDM is a German industrial band from Hamburg led by Sascha Konietzko, who founded the band in 1984 as a performance art project.
  The band's earliest incarnation included German drummer En Esch and British vocalist Raymond Watts, the latter of whom left and rejoined the group several times over its history. The trio recorded the band's earliest albums in Germany before Konietzko and Esch moved to the United States, where they found much greater success with seminal industrial record label Wax Trax!. German guitarist Günter Schulz joined in 1990; both he and Esch continued with the band until KMFDM broke up in 1999. Konietzko resurrected KMFDM in 2002 on Metropolis Records, and by 2005 he had assembled a consistent line-up that included American singer Lucia Cifarelli, British guitarists Jules Hodgson and Steve White, and British drummer Andy Selway. Konietzko and Cifarelli moved back to Germany in 2007, while the rest of the band stayed in the U.S. Hodgson and White moved on to other pursuits between 2015 and 2017, leaving the band a working trio unofficially.
context_section_description: The mid-to-late 1990s were KMFDM's most successful years in terms of album sales and mainstream awareness. Konietzko moved to Seattle in 1994, while Esch moved to New Orleans. Watts rejoined the band to work on its eighth album, Nihil, which peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and sold 209,000 copies, making it the band's best-selling album. It marked the first contributions by drummer Bill Rieflin, who worked with the band on its next five albums. Nihil featured KMFDM's most widely known song, "Juke Joint Jezebel", versions of which appeared on both the Bad Boys and Mortal Kombat soundtracks, the latter of which peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 and sold over 1.8 million copies. Their song "Ultra" was used in the English version of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.
  Commenting on the rotating cast of musicians shortly after Nihil's release, Konietzko said, "It's as if En and I are the suns and the other musicians at the time come and revolve around us." Regarding the duo's dynamic, Konietzko said, "En Esch and myself have always been the cornerstone of KMFDM's existence. And we are diametrically opposed as writers. The angsty stuff generally comes from him. The poppy, hard stuff comes from me." Esch commented in 1994, "Sascha and myself are different, of course. But that's why we can still make things happen. Our best and worst qualities are contrary. To put it simply, he's more organized and stable, I'm more complicated and abstract."
  In late 1995, close friend and president of Chicago's Wax Trax! Jim Nash died of an illness complicated by AIDS, and Seattle became the official headquarters of KMFDM. Watts toured with KMFDM throughout 1995 in support of Nihil, but then left the group to return to recording under the Pig moniker. Esch also separated from the group, and Xtort was created in 1996 almost entirely without his input. Konietzko instead brought in a number of other industrial artists such as Chris Connelly to assist with the album. Xtort was the first KMFDM album to chart on the Billboard 200 and the highest-charting album in the band's history, reaching No. 92 and selling more than 200,000 copies. "Power", the album's first single, was the most heavily promoted song in the band's history, with almost 100,000 copies included in a free Wax Trax! sampler album in mid-1996. Konietzko later said Xtort was his favorite album of the 1990s.
  Esch returned for the Symbols album, which was released in 1997 and featured Abby Travis and Skinny Puppy's Nivek Ogre. Symbols reached No. 137 on the Billboard 200. Its first track, "Megalomaniac", was featured in the film Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, and was the first song from its soundtrack to receive radio airplay.  Tim Skold, formerly of the band Shotgun Messiah, made his first appearance as a band member, writing lyrics and performing vocals on "Anarchy". Looking back on Symbols in 2002, Konietzko said, "I listened to the Symbols album and heard exactly why KMFDM broke up in the first place. It told me the story of what went wrong. There were maybe two (good) songs on that album and the others were just a bunch of compromising tug-of-wars. That was something I was not going to do again."
  The band released a pair of compilation albums in 1998. The first, Retro, was a greatest hits compilation which included most of the singles released up until Xtort. The second, Agogo, was a collection of rarities and previously unreleased tracks, including a cover of U2's "Mysterious Ways".
caption: Chris Connelly (right) and Nivek Ogre in 1991. Both contributed guest vocals for KMFDM in the 1990s.
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