This veteran Russian band is probably better known for their live shows and political statements than for the actual music, and "Sadism" falls under this definition. KM play the kind of standard, primitive death/thrash metal that was done many times before, and the band fails to bring anything fresh or interesting into this music. My favorite song on the album is "Mertviy Rasputin" (Dead Rasputin) simply because it's the catchiest song where the band actually managed to come up with cohesive riffs and a memorable melody. The rest of the songs, unfortunately, including KM's infamous hit "Kill to Tsunaref"(which struck the chord with people mainly because of the lyrical message), just go in through one ear and go out through the other without leaving much trace. This album sucks, but if you ever get a chance to see KM live, by all means check them out, as you will be exposed to a lot of female flesh, consumption of booze by rampaging midgets and other artifacts. I heard that the band's early stuff from the mid and late 80's was much better than anything they did in the 90's. Another funny (or sad) thing about KM is the fact that the band members are actually Christians (I bet the authors of "Lords of Chaos" didn't know that). However, they don't promote Christianity through their music in any way. More of an opposite, their imagery is filled with booze, sex, Satanism, violence and so on, but the band members themselves actually attend churches. This fact allows me to say that the KM's aesthetics are those of someone like Alice Cooper than of any devoted Satanist or National Socialist, despite the fact that both of those things are present in the band's music. Apparently they are only used as a part of their image.

© 1999 boris