AMG Review of Don't Blow Your Top

Andy Hinds
All Music Guide

This early release from industrial titans KMFDM sounds a little flimsy when compared to the band's pile-driving later work. Recorded in 1988, the music on Don't Blow Your Top naturally sounds a bit dated -- like a combination of early Meat Beat Manifesto, Twitch-era Ministry, and even and the more primitive stuff of Alien Sex Fiend. This early, embryonic lineup of the group, including Sasha Konietzko, En Esch, and Nainz Watts, is still finding its sound here. Decidedly lighter in tone than the classic KMFDM sound of the '90s, Don't Blow Your Top features little of the stuff that would become KMFDM trademarks: sledgehammer guitars, state-of-the-art programming, and politically charged lyrical sloganeering. In fact, most of the tracks on Don't Blow Your Top are little more than primitive drum loops decorated with simple chants and samples; the ideas just don't seem fully developed. Still, it's interesting to see how it all started. A work in progress.