Laibach is a Slovenian avant-garde musical group, formed in 1980 in the mining town of Trbovlje, Slovenia (at the time the Socialist Republic of Slovenia) and they are still active today.
The album I’m choosing to review by them is their third full length, Opus Dei, released on March 23, 1987 by mute records.
Early material by Laibach and later their neoclassical releases by the band, such as their album Macbeth, were very influential in the Martial Industrial genre. Laibach has gone through several lineup changes, but around the time they released this album, it was Dejan Knez (Pseudonym Elk Eber), Milan Fras, Ervin Markosek, and Ivan “Jani” Novak (Pseudonym Ivo Saliger).
Opus Dei has two songs that are covers or revisions on this album, one being a German cover of Queens “One Vision” and the other song covers are two reworkings of “Live is Life” by Austrian Pop Rock band Opus.
Opus Dei has a total of 8 songs and a running time of 37 minutes and 17 seconds:
- “Leben heißt Leben” (Live Is Life) (Opus) – 5:28
- “Geburt einer Nation” (Birth of a Nation) (Queen) – 4:22
- “Leben – Tod” (Life – Death) (Laibach) – 3:58
- “F.I.A.T.” (Laibach) – 5:13
- “Opus Dei” (Opus) – 5:04
- “Trans-National” (Laibach) – 4:28
- “How the West Was Won” (Laibach) – 4:26
- “The Great Seal” (Laibach) – 4:16
The song “The Great Seal” is recognized as the national anthem of the NSK state, and some of the lyrics were taken straight from Winston Churchill’s 1940’s “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” Speech.
There are two more connections to Queen’s “A kind of magic” Studio Album, including the fact that the drum loop in “Trans-National” is nearly identical to that in Queen’s “Don’t Lose Your Head”, but in fact it is composed from samples from the introduction musical theme from the Yugoslavian partisan film Battle of Nereveta, composed by Bernard Herrmann. And the elements of the song “How the West Was Won”, more specifically the guitar and rhythms are inspired by Queen’s “Gimme the Prize (Kurgan’s Theme)”
Overall, I think this album is very important to the industrial music genre, although it’s only one of Laibach’s many albums, it is easily their best work, because of its importance, and how much enjoyment I get out of it, I’d have to give this album an 8/10.
