Xtort, sometimes written XTOЯT, is the ninth studio album by industrial rock group KMFDM. It was released June 25, 1996 on Wax Trax!/TVT. It was recorded in Chicago, Illinois, shortly after the death of Wax Trax! co-founder and band friend Jim Nash, from the end of 1995 through early 1996, and featured a variety of guest artists from other industrial bands, but had limited participation from core member En Esch.
The album was highly promoted by TVT Records, who sent out tens of thousands of free copies of the first single, "Power". The band did their own form of anti-promotion as well, creating a press release that both insulted and hyped the coming set. Xtort was generally well received by critics, with many calling it superlative, and is the highest charting and best-selling KMFDM album to date. After the original release went out of print, a remastered version was released in 2007.Xtort, sometimes written XTOЯT, is the ninth studio album by industrial rock group KMFDM. It was released June 25, 1996 on Wax Trax!/TVT. It was recorded in Chicago, Illinois, shortly after the death of Wax Trax! co-founder and band friend Jim Nash, from the end of 1995 through early 1996, and featured a variety of guest artists from other industrial bands, but had limited participation from core member En Esch.
The album was highly promoted by TVT Records, who sent out tens of thousands of free copies of the first single, "Power". The band did their own form of anti-promotion as well, creating a press release that both insulted and hyped the coming set. Xtort was generally well received by critics, with many calling it superlative, and is the highest charting and best-selling KMFDM album to date. After the original release went out of print, a remastered version was released in 2007.false2025-11-08 04:42:03Xtort19961996-06-251996-06-2549ElectronicIndustrialRockSpeech112872212123450da43de-3424-45cc-8563-7bbbdce354ec45074d7c-5307-44a8-854f-ae072e1622ae60fc6a7f-0053-39fb-9412-2e65c55146c4/media/data/media5/Music/KMFDM/Xtort/folder.jpgKMFDMKMFDMKMFDM (originally Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid, loosely translated by the band as "no pity for the majority") is a multinational 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 (Esch and Schulz declined to rejoin) 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. In addition to these core members, dozens of other musicians have worked with the group across its twenty studio albums and two dozen singles, with sales totaling in excess of two million records worldwide.
Critics consider KMFDM one of the first bands to bring industrial music to mainstream audiences, though Konietzko refers to the band's music as "The Ultra-Heavy Beat". The band incorporates heavy metal guitar riffs, electronic music, samples, and both male and female vocals in its music, which encompasses a variety of styles including industrial rock and electronic body music. The band is fiercely political, with many of its lyrics taking stands against violence, war, and oppression. KMFDM normally tours at least once after every major release, and band members are known for their accessibility to and interaction with fans, both online and at concerts. Members, independently or working together and with other musicians, have recorded under many other names, primarily Watts' Pig, Konietzko's Excessive Force, and Esch and Schulz's Slick Idiot.