Opus Dei

I begun the album sipping coffee when a strange feeling came from my bowels. I rushed to the restroom, sat down and what felt like a hot soup can came rushing out of me. For a moment I felt relief. Just then a yawn followed by what sounded like an angry German came from the bowl. I was launched off the toilet and knocked to the ground from an uppercut to the anus followed by a mid air roundhouse the face. I was half naked and stunned as he appeared. A brown demon shit stood before me. I had spawned a demon poo. He tied me up gagged me and left me in the bedroom closet. I was left in sheer horror as I knew my darling Betty would be home soon. But instead of harming her all I could hear is soft German being spoken to her. For the next 24 hours all I could see, smell and hear was love makin. The nasty German kind. Once it was over a knife was held to my neck and I was unbound with a simple "shhhhhhh" coming from the angry turd demon. My dear Betty asleep he left the room, the house and what I now know the state. I found him on linked in a year later. Happy and married working as some sort of lobbyist for Pfizer. Fuck you Opus Day. You spawned a demon turd right out of me. Betty still calls his name and the skid marks remain on the sheets.

JA, JA, JA, JA! GET ME A LIGHT BEER. derbysieger. pros; 1- one of the best album covers i've ever seen 2- that voice. 3- turning europop into a rally. 4- Yogoslavian avant garde. cons; 1- you have to be in to medieval trumpets to get the most out of this album. 2 -realistically its a 3 track album and some fuck around arty shit. from now on if anyone asks me what music i am in to it will be 'Nationalistic avante garde industrial music created by yugoslavian dissidents'.

Next time I am Conjuring up holy holy demons this is the album I'll listen to

80s Rammstein w/cookie monster singing

Finally, something with a personality, with a distinct atmosphere. I was surprised how much better is their version of Life is life and the rest could be a perfect soundtrack for a dystopian movie.

Ironic fascism but questionable how much irony.

Completely different from anything we've listened to so far. I wasn't completely unfamiliar with Laibach but, if I'd ever listened to this whole album, it was thirty years ago and I didn't remember all of it. I found it compelling, frightening, and funny, and spent the day falling down a Laibach rabbit hole. This is exactly the kind of thing I'm here for.

This is a joke, right? It sounds like a homemade backtrack, in the style of the Princess Bride soundtrack, for a recruitment VHS for the secret society of neckbearded katana enthusiasts. It evokes mental images of quick cuts between scenes of swords slicing halfway through 2-liter bottles of mountain dew, and dudes with fedoras bowing. Honestly, the music itself doesn't have much to offer and I can't really think of what impact this band had on the history of music that would merit suggesting this is something that anyone has to hear in their lifetime. If anything, I'd suggest it's quite the opposite.

he sounds like kermit the frog

For the first three songs I thought this would be a nailed on five. There’s something stirring about the combination of a relentless marching beat and campy synths overseen by what can only be described as the voice of a coalmine turned animate. It’s surprisingly catchy and surprisingly playful and exactly the sort of album that should be here because it’s so cocobananas that you have to listen to it. It definitely loses some oomph as the doom/authoritarian cosplay wears thin. Still, worth the journey.

The last 4 or 5 songs were really a drag to get though, but I found the A side to be more enjoyable. As a novice German-speaker, he's pretty easy to understand, found I could understand a good deal of it. So that was enjoyable. Not sure what I think of them though after reading about the group. Usage of Nazi iconography is pretty questionable, though I guess they were using it kind of subversively to point on the problems with state power under communism? Not sure that wears as well in 2021 post-Trump/alt-right era as it might have in 1987 behind the steel curtain.

Uhhhhh… what am I listening to? More importantly, why am I enjoying it so much? This is utterly wackadoodle and I’m loving it! “Leben heißt Leben” seemed vaguely familiar. I did not expect the guitar solo, but it works well. The discordant ending is incredible! When “Geburt einer Nation” and “Opus Dei” came on I definitely knew the songs. Turns out a friend shared them with me on a mix tape many decades ago. I never followed up on the whole album. Queen’s “One Vision” works incredibly well sung by a Muppets-Animal sound-alike to a martial beat. The vocal delivery is delightful and the song quite danceable! Is this something I’ll listen to often? Who cares?! It’s unique. Crazy. Dramatic. Lumbering. Cinematic. Dark. It was strangely suited for listening to while I work… I really love this album!

No idea where I actually land on this one. Things I like, things I don't, so rating right in the middle.

Well this is really not an album I was expecting from this list. Am I glad to have heard it? Yes. Can I see where it might have been influential? Also yes. Does it hold up as good music? Kinda. Sometimes. There are some highly repetitive noise tracks in this and they properly start to grate after a while. Not having read any user reviews yet, I'm almost entirely sure that there will be a swathe of 1-star "terrible"s, but there something here. The militarism is difficult to get past. I don't know if it's genuine or a pisstake, and am almost reluctant to look into it. Will I be listening to this again? Heck no. Though I do reserve the right to play people German language Queen covers from time to time.

I had to look up the translation for Opus Dei. Apparently, it’s latin for “two stars”.

Really enjoyed this. But maybe not for the right reasons? Had me smiling throughout. Great production. Not sure how seriously I was supposed to be taking it (I hope it's as tongue in cheek as I think). Militaryesque martial music. Industrial with a strong heavy dark beat. Dictator music. The sort of music I'd expect to hear at a Trump rally. Only it's primarily in "foreign" so the insular fuckwit wouldn't have given it time of day. The Queen cover is awesome. 'Get me a Litebeer' (yes... I know!). On second listen some of the tracks on side 2 drag on a little. 3.5

My first album from the bottom ten. An album with such a status naturally generates apprehension, a fear that one is due for an hour of the absolutely unlistenable. It also naturally generates some pre-emptive affection, some desire to look kindly upon the underdog. Me, I like to think I've a steely spine and resilient eardrums, so I'm not phased by an album purporting to be tricky. Laibach are a Slovenian group associated with the Neue Slowenische Kunst, a Slovenian art collective formed in 1980 in what was Yugoslavia during the Cold War. Tending towards industrial and neoclassical music, Laibach frequently employs authoritarian, mechanistic and militaristic themes and imagery. This in turn has led to accusations of bad taste and dodgy political sentiments (it's not at all hard to find Laibach wearing ersatz SS uniforms minus the swastikas). I would say that it's pretty clear that Laibach belong with the firm left rather than anything right-wing (they have occasionally used works by the anti-Nazi dadaist John Heartfield on their record sleeves). I shall also mention that Laibach, as part of NSK, has formed their own country without borders, and issues passports to whoever requests them; during the breakup of Yugoslavia, some people managed to use these unofficial passports to escape the region and the violence. Anyway, on to Opus Dei. From the off, one can detect a dadaist leaning in their choice of songs they choose to adapt: Opus' Live is Life and Queen's One Vision (in Geburt einer Nation). Live is Life, that persistently naff 80s package holiday anthem beloved by mulleted Teutons and lobster-red tourists, occurs twice on the album as a harsh marching anthem with collectivist, dominative lyrics, but both times it just comes off as a comical cover of Live is Life, akin to a thrash metal take on Baby One More Time. Likewise, Geburt einer Nation just seems a suitably camp metal version of One Vision, despite the implications of an unsympathetic lyrical reading of the Queen song (one may draw an unpleasant parallel between "one man, one soul, one mission" and "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer"). The rest of the album (or rather, the rest of the vinyl edition of the album, more on that later) maintains this humorous, theatrical air and, for all its purported harshness, can be easily treated as an elaborate gag. Thus, your appreciation of the album may depend on how funny you find it. Personally, whereas it's not quite that I found the joke wearing thin, I wasn't bent double, gasping for air through the spasmic laughter. The CD version of Opus Dei featured a bonus of 4 tracks from their soundtrack album Baptism, and that's what I came here for. Devoid of Opus Dei's attempted satire, the uncompromising stamp of the last four mesmerises, successfully demonstrating the morbid, noisome allure of the despotic and warlike. With the bonus material, it appears that Laibach remembered that if you're going to be an industrial band, you shouldn't be coy about it. So, three stars for the album in total, the full five for the last four.

Sounds like music you play in an 80s movie when the Soviet’s are up to no good. Interesting if not really my thing. Enjoyed the queen cover. 2/5

Everyone's favourite avant-garde Slovenian art rock band, right? Honestly, this fucking rules. Taking the dumbest dogshit song by Austrian no-hopers Opus and covering it - twice? Turning Queen's 'One Vision' into a mock blood-and-soil military march? Finishing up with a quote from Churchill? Superb. Wish more bands had the guts to do something quite as cerebral and satirical as this. Maybe Devo, maybe the Residents. Points the way towards what popular music could be.

Feels at first like a very silly parody of a german metal album, but under the surface it's actually much more meaningful that you'd think. In perspective to how long they've come today, it's pretty amazing I've never heard of them before. Also the wagnerian influences are amazing. Actually a 4...

Because I am a purist, I only listened through track 8 (The Great Seal) because that was where the original 1987 LP ended. As far as I am concerned, there is no longer any other music. This is the only music I will listen to forever and ever. This isn't sarcasm. It is a speech impediment. Especially when you read it out loud.

Thank God this is over.

No thanks.

Truly awful.

Like a soundtrack to 1984. Utterly bizarre but yet fantastic.

Il s'agira sans doute de ma note la plus étonnante au sein de cette escroquerie de générateur, mais j'ai bel et bien passé un moment d'anthologie en compagnie de ces Slovènes germanophones. De l'arrivée des chars d'assaut à la plantation du drapeau sur le territoire ennemi, je me suis tout simplement régalé bien qu'étant de nature non-belligérante. La seule personne que j'avais tabassé dans ma vie jusqu'alors était Robert. Or, depuis cet album, je ne compte même plus le nombre de personnes laissées en knock-out sur ma route. Comme quoi…

That was a weird one. Do I love it or hate it? I don't even know, but it was certainly different.

I'm having a hard time taking the lyrics seriously. I don't understand German, though, so I'm aware that my inclination to giggle over them could be deeply innappropriate. He really does sound like Cookie Monster and I envision him looking/performing like Animal the Muppet (my favorite muppet!). Removing the lyrics, I can see the music being the soundtrack to a fairly intense action movie. I'll have to check out their newer stuff, especially the take on Bach's Fugue. Could do without Herz-Felde's loops. Not likely to listen again, but I doesn't make me want to peel my ears off, so, yeah.

With that cover you know you're in for something special. Take the most arty and avant-garde base, like the most esoteric Talking Heads, mix it with grade z industrial metal, add troll with chunks of facist, or is it, and, for the pièce de résistance, have the lead singer sound remarkably like Cookie Monster when he does actually sing. Voilà! Laibach! What's on this album is more performance art than music, clearly meant to provoke a reaction. My reaction was I did not care for it. However, I appreciate what they did here is on-purpose, so props to them for that. I won't give it one star, but I just cannot give it 3.

Horrifically bad, sounds like a Slovenian exorcism, and an unsuccessful one.

WTF

Love it

The tracks "Opus Dei" and "Geburt einer Nation" were in heavy rotation on my friends' and my college-era mixtapes. I loved the subversive take on pop music. There may have been some very exuberant sing-alongs with the former. Listening to this album for the first time, I was a bit surprised to hear "Leben Heißt Leben" since it's an entirely different version of the song I'd known. (By the way, I knew neither of those previously mentioned songs by their proper titles. Not everyone was good about writing proper song titles and artists on their mixtapes in the 80s, which was a pet peeve of mine.) But it was delightful, and the "proper" version of "Life is Life" was thankfully still there as well. I'd love to write a proper review of this and more specifically why I love it. Suffice it to say that I think it's magnificent. We needed this desperately in 1987.

I was intimidated by the looks of this album, but I had a great time listening. I wonder if I missed the point, though, because I had a difficult time taking it seriously. Nonetheless, I totally dug it!

I was a bit wary of this, slightly put off by the "industrial" label. But I was very pleasantly surprised. It's built around two cover versions: Queen's One Vision, and Life Is Life from Opus. Both are reworked into Wagnerian epics and the whole album was very enjoyable.

This one's kind of out there, but I'm going back to listen to it again. It went well with yard work, so I'm going to see how it holds up when I'm paying attention.

I have no idea why I enjoyed this. But I did.

Funny. Silly. Entertaining. Is it supposed to be funny? I can't take it seriously, but it has raised a smile. Can't see me listening to it again, but it was a fun listen.

This kinda fucking ROCKS

Truly ridiculous, but I think knowingly. I had a blast listening to this and laughed out loud multiple times. Now, is it GOOD? Tough to say.

kind of enjoyed tbh

Well-constructed, clearly in good faith, but industrial is not my jam: the rhythm is too redolent of a man trying to cross a road discretely after catastrophically filling his trousers. Expect it sounds better in a bierkeller.

I do, as it happens, appreciate melodramatic rock tropes harshly intonated at me in German (see Die Toten Hosen, and, likely, Rammstein whom I figure I would probably like although have not yet had the pleasure). So it goes here, although if I were to pick a 1985 Eurotrash one-hit-wonder as the basis of a quasi-fascist song cycle, I would have gone with Baltimora's "Tarzan Boy". This is a bit one-note, but fun enough to pass the time. As Slovenian exports go, it's infinitely preferable to the execrable Melania Trump.

Haha wtf

I get what they're going for, I get what it's supposed to be, but that doesn't mean it's fun to listen to or enjoyable at all

okay right off the bat realizing the song i love, "life is life" by kirin callinan is just a cover of the first song on this album lol okay girls idk?? i think she's kinda fun?? i like the upbeat music contrasting with this mans insaneeee voice. okay i just thought that way about the first two songs... two songs left.. please end

This is definitely one of the strangest albums on this list. We start with the almost military (or perhaps sea-shanty) Leben heist Leben, with a dramatic, artificial drumbeat and a team of bellowing male vocalists. The guitar solo is pretty cool, incorporating some staple 80s elements like slow, post-psychedelia-esque guitar picking and blurry, interweaving guitar in the background. The atonal organ and backing guitars create a weird doomy atmosphere that isn't quite synchronous with the rest of the song. Many of the following tracks are similar. Also common to most tracks is a strange half-brass-half-synth sound that makes me more uncomfortable than anything else. It's incredibly weird. Like an army of nationalist cyborgs is approaching and spewing propaganda. Geburt einer Nation, the second track, is incredibly similar to Queen's One Vision – as I'm sure was intended – but it's not nearly as good as the work of Her Majesty. The interacting gravelly and nasally vocals are goofy, but they're worse than goshdarn Freddie Mercury's voice. The synths are comparatively lower in the mix, and the very simple drumming is pushed to the forefront (not ideal). I did enjoy this track, though, if only because the original Queen material was so strong. The track F.I.A.T. takes the album's artificial feel to the extreme, even placing a robotic filter over the monotone vocals and using some kind of string-keyboard. It isn't exactly bad, but it feels like it's trying to be alienating. Something something dictatorship nationalism. Opus Dei, the title track, does the whole "fascism rock" gig best. All of the tracks after Opus Dei are confused and not very memorable. Herz-Felde, with its annoying tape-looped vocals, is essentially the end of Another Brick In The Wall Part 2, but for nearly five minutes. It's the weakest track on the album. Jagerspiel isn't much better, essentially being a sound collage with a fast tape-looped 6/8 rhythm on repeat for more than 7 minutes. That album cover, though? Badass. 2/5 Key tracks: Geburt einer Nation, Opus Dei

Only two songs in and I'm resisting the desire to march, march, march away. I just realized I hate industrial music more than I hate zydeco.

That time Yello got totally munted on Scrumpy Jack and PCPs and went to a Nazi bouncy-castle party to have a belching competition with Fasolt and Fafner. This is my just desserts for complaining about stupefyingly boring artists like Green Day and Taylor Swift being on this list. I mean, I asked for it. Funny once, but actually shit.

After hearing this, I think singing in German should be banned.

I hate this

What a bloated, heaping pile of gravel-filled horse excrement. The anti-fascist/fascist b.s. only masks the pointlessness of this soulless gurgle of acid. This may be the absolute worst album I've ever listened to... and I DID listen to it! The whole wretched thing! I earnestly wanted to discover why it was on this list. I mean, for the sake of it, the metalhead in me wanted to relate to the tone, the ambiance, the themes... but there's no way into this self-serving chamber echoing farts. Negative zero -- and that's being kind.

Vert der ferk?

Nope

Oh hell no

what the fuck

Hard pass.

Well that was awful

I feel like I just listened to an hour of nazi propaganda

Garbage

Just a slog to get through. Repetitive and uninteresting. Really disappointed in this one.

Incredibly difficult to get through. There are some musical aspects to this, but it sacrifices those moments for the sake of art. That being said, I don't like the art.

I loved every moment of this. It is just the type of weird and off-putting that is right down my alley. This is the type of out-there shit I want to discover from this project. I'm not understanding all of the hate in the reviews, though, after reading them, I can't help but hear Cookie Monster.

I had never heard of this band before and was really intrigued when I saw the album cover. I really loved this a lot. Finally something completely different from anything I've had so far, with a personality and distinct atmosphere. This is exactly why I started this list. I found it compelling, eerie and unsettling in places. It's military-esque with a big marching beat behind most of the tracks. It's unique, cinematic, menacing. It's industrial with a really strong, dark beat. There's a really cool 1980's synth vibe running through it, but it doesn't make it sound any less heavy and dark. In fact, it really adds to the music. It even features a cover of Queen's 'One Vision' which was a huge shock and it sounds fantastic. I can't explain to you how nice it is to have something like this after having a constant flow of generic and boring one, two and three star albums. I enjoyed it so much I listened to the CD version which was an extra 20 minutes. If you want something a bit different, a beg you to listen to this album. I haven't got a clue who Laibach are, but they're fucking great!

That's always a wonderful thing.

Quel album mesdames messieurs! Totale surprise, considérant qu'il est dans le top 10 des albums les moins bien noté du générateur. Je peux comprendre les critiques: c'est dur, c'est violent, ça parle de fascisme et ça sonne fasciste... mais c'est TELLEMENT différent de la slop country et post-punk/new wave qu'on me régurgite dans les oreilles à chaque deux jours que je me sens revitaliser. Ça me fait l'effet d'un Brain Salad Surgery feat. Sabaton & Evil Kraftwerk, financé par un état fasciste euro-centriste dystopique rétro-futuriste à la Disco Elysium, et ça, c'est beaucoup trop spécifique pour ne pas lui donner 5.

Могучие и прекрасные.

Badass German music. A unique soundscape

I honestly have no idea what's going on with this album but it's powerful, and grandiose, and weird, and hypnotic, and just strange. I'm probably in the minority but I liked it. The album features strong vocal performances and each song has its own identity. Not knowing German, I would expect each song to more or less sound the same. But Laibach did a great job of differentiating the sound on each song while still making the album feel like one cohesive project. It was definitely a trip to say the least. I'm not sure how much I'll be revisiting it but I did enjoy it as a whole.

Like Shostakovich but with vocals, what a strange and fun listen.

9/10 Give me a lite beer. I haven't looked to see how many other people just put this in, but I bet it was most. 1-14-2025

Thought I would hate it but ended up listening several times!

Heaviest album ever

strange and wonderful - I loved every strange minute!

Once, when I was young I found a copy of this cassette in the road, while walking, and that was my first exposure to Laibach, and the industrial music genre. This tape blew my mind. The most esoteric thing I had been listening to prior to this discovery was the Swiss Godfathers of Electronica, Yello (whose absence from this list, by the way, is unforgivable). Mind blowing that they managed to make this album while trapped in the Soviet Union (now modern day Slovenia). It broadened my horizons about the notion about what music could be, and urged me on a path to discovering all kinds of bold and adventurous music. It was a path that would lead me over the next few years to Ministry, KMFDM, Die Warzau, Skinny Puppy, Sister Machine Gun and countless other acts that were within the sight of the industrial genre. This is definitely one of the formative acts and albums that impacted not only the industrial genre, but eventually the genres of dance and pop. Their Wagnerian and Kratwerk influences shine through in a completely. new sound.

Ah yes, love this so much, right up my alley. Such a great story behind this band too, love it. Fave: Leben heißt Leben -- it just sets the mood perfectly.

Oh yeah, this was a missing puzzle piece in my musical landscape. I've got a bunch of "martial industrial" music that makes great WH40K background music, and I guess this is where that genre sprang from. I'm guessing this is also what Tool were riffing on with their track "Die Eier Von Satan"... 😆 It's kinda strange I hadn't checked these guys out already as I'm a fan of industrial music generally - I guess the fashy aesthetic put me off giving them a chance. Glad to learn that they're satirizing fascism rather than it being in earnest. Fave tracks - "Geburt Einer Nation" is great - gets the message across loud and clear! "Leben Heißt Leben" and "Opus Dei" work well together. "Trans-national" is cool, and I dig the frenetic "Jägerspiel" too.

This is one of the coolest bands ever and a superb industrial record. „Leben heißt leben“ is still one of my alleine favourites.

Klassiker!

Unexpectedly heavy, Rammsteinish?

I love it. Who wouldn't love Slovenian, totalitarian industrial music. Losers, that's who! Also, great Queen cover.

Rating it 5 because this is the first album where the music is truly unique and took me off guard. life is life cover killed me

Was not expecting a cover of life is life to go so hard. Super cool album. I need more Slovenian metal.

Holy shit this is amazing. Rammstein + Borat + Art of Noise. Seven stars at least. Might be my new favorite band.

5/5

Not perfect, but weird, interesting, and well done. Amazing music. The only thing lacking was some of the vocals. 4 1/2 🌟

1987 - German. Trumpets! Industrial music; Martial industrial; Neoclassical Dark Wave

I was first introduced to this band when they released Kapital, an album that I quite liked and have listened to many times since. The rest of their discovery has always been a bit of a mixed bag for me, but I might have found a new favourite with Opus Dei. The two versions of Life Is Life were familiar of course, as well as a couple of other songs, but this sounded very impressive overall.

Definitely heard of laibach before, but never listened. Really cool industrial music similar to rammstein. Read up on them a little bit and their history and concepts are also quite interesting. Some of the songs are bit too repetitive for my taste but overall I enjoyed it. Feel like child laborer in during the industrial revolution listening to this. 😋 Will listen again. 8/10

Early industrial fun! 4.5 rounded up

Felt like Rammstein vocals but with 80s NBA game intro audio on network tv

hilariously moving, perfectly constructed, heavier than heaven

This is an album and band that's MEANT to make you feel uncomfortable. Not sure why this is marked as metal/hardrock though. Have you ever wondered how much Queen's "One Vision" seemingly shares a lot of similarities to certain 1930 speeches when translated into German? (Ein Mensch, Ein Ziel, Eine Erde und ein Volk!) Have you ever thought what would happen if you REALLY listen to the lyrics of Opus' 'Life is Life' and put it into a Nietzschean / Wagner type style, complete with a campy totalitarian aesthetic? Laibach is disturbing, thought-provoking and unsettling. And it's supposed to be. And a band that's worth listening more of. Albums like Spectre, Kapital or Wir Sind Das Volk are fully worth it.

Rating this a five, not because I think every song on it is great but because I really the vibe the whole album puts out.

the exact type of band (and album) which makes me really happy we started this project — dadaist yugoslavian industrial music including a queen cover (and they also did a full album that’s just industrial covers of the beatles’ let it be???? more please). just incredible all around. viewed as an art piece, it’s one of the best i’ve ever seen. it’s also pretty listenable!

These guys rock so hard. The album has industrial; it has art, all with an underneath of satire.

There have been just a very small handful amount of albums that has jarred me so hard in a good way. This was one of those albums. This album is so unique and very engaging. This gives me hope that one day Rammstein will pop up on this list. Laibach is fantastic and I am now a fan. 5! TBz 1. Leben Heist Leben 2. Opus Dei 3. Gebert Einer Nation 4. Leben - Tod 5. Herz-Felde

Incredibly cinematic. I think this album is vital after listening to it, and I would argue that this obviously inspired several other projects (Rammstein feels like an obvious one, but stuff like Sigur Rós and other atmospheric projects definitely seem to have similar lineage musically). Either way, this is an album that I think everyone should digest at some point.

Different - and crucially fun - it's almost like a pop record rather than the metal it's presented as. 4.6

I put this on a bit close to bedtime, which means that I was listening to it while sitting in the bedroom winding down. When my partner came in to the room I was halfway through Herz-Felde and was subjected to very rude questions like "what is that terrible noise?" anyway industrial music go brrrr thunk thunk thunk brrrr