Opus Dei

We need to take a step back and pay attention to what Laibach is doing here. This is less an endorsement of authoritarian aesthetics than an exploration of why they're so effective. Halfway through the opening track, I could feel the toothbrush mustache growing and felt a sudden urge to organize a march through the Sudetenland. The entire album feels like music to stage a putsch to. That's the point. Opus Dei is a study of how music, spectacle, and emotion can make people hand power to ideas and philosophies without stopping to examine them. The songs aren't asking you to agree with anything. They're asking you to notice how easily you're swept along by certainty, strength, unity, and pageantry. Pay attention, people. This is a remarkably deep album wrapped in something that sounds profoundly wrong to modern ears. My Rating: 5/5

I usually don't write reviews, but now this one really bugs my mind...as an Austrian I just have to protest the inclusion of this Laibach album, or rather its existence alltogether. The long story: we Austrians are the country of Mozart, Haydn, Mahler, Strauss, contemporary international successfull artists like Falco, Parov Stelar, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Bilderbuch and many, many more amazing male and female artist. And still NOT A SINGLE ALBUM by an Austrian artist is on this god-forsaken list. But you know what is? An industrial "metal" album by a Slovenian music group whose name, existance and art is a mocking of the Slovenian culture. In the Austria south, near the border to Sloviena there has been a decade long right-wing-nationalist-led suppression of the Slovenian minority living there. The suppression includes (but is not limited to) erasing the Slovenian language from the public eye. And now here we have a Slovenian group naming themselves in the German name of their capital Ljubljana (Laibach), using facist imagery in their art (ironically?) and singing their songs in English and GERMAN. I mean come an, really? And to top this shit off: TWO (!) of the songs on the album (actully the only interesing ones) are covers version of one of the most famous Austrian songs ever (by the band "Opus"), i.e. "Live is Live". The original "Live is live" is sung in English by "Opus". This original version is so well known, they even played it this year in the stadion of the football world championship finale for everyone to hear on TV. And what do these Slovenian guys do to make their latent facist statement clear? Sing two terrible cover versions in GERMAN, the mother tongue of the original band Opus (I guess that is also the reason for them naming the album "Opus Dei"). To sum things up: this album rips off much better Austrian artists and insults the core of Slovenian culture. Anyone having to listen to it because of this list, do yourself a favour and listen to Falcos international hit album "Falco 3" from 1985. PS: Laibach is also responsible for the existance of Rammstein, so another reason for my 1-star rating.

weird

Kind of like the idea in a loose, abstract sense but the actual music (especially the synth orchestra) doesn't exactly entice me to spend more time with it and dig deeper. In truth, regrettably, I couldn't wait for it to end.

This is obviously a big joke, but out of context, it's just really strange. The vocals are like a cartoon villain, and the uber-serious, industrial-adjacent tracks are broken up by fife and drum, corny keyboards, sappy orchestral music you would hear on a old TV show, military fanfares, etc. Each element seems to be added purely to undermine the element it follows. Maybe more successful as performance art than as music. Some of the more experimental bits without vocals are kind of interesting, although I wonder if they're just interpolated from other sources for comedic juxtaposition. Anyway, interesting to listen to once but not very enjoyable. I'm pretty sure I've heard some Laibach before and it was just kind of standard 80s industrial music, but maybe that was them taking the piss as regards standard 80s industrial music but I was too simple to catch on? Probably. Essential listen: no Desert island disc: no

Brutal, brutish, militaristic - a grind of a listen

This sounded like Cookie Monster yelling in German. It was terrible! The guy's voice so reminded me of Cookie Monster. Seriously, go listen to this and tell me I'm wrong (especially the second and third songs on the album). It's all I could hear. It sounded like a joke!

didn't expect this on the list. had fun listening to it. i hope this austrian guy that rages here in the comments will never be rejected from an art school

This one's a big no from me, really dull and uninspired.

Laibach — Opus Dei I deserve a Medal for Acts of Valor for finishing this album. Am I reich? Sorry, Freudian slip. What a blitzkrieg of German techno… not in a good way. Bach is somewhere rolling in his grave wondering who in Deutschland let someone make this kind of music. I know the Germans are innovative, but this kinda makes me want to have Gorbachev put the wall back up… Even while doing cardio, I found this demotivating and it’s mainly upbeat techno with German chants in the background… not sure how that isn’t doing its job with motivation, but it did not. Stars: 1/5 Rating: 1/10

actually not bad

A very strange album. I'm not a huge fan but it is kind of interesting. It trends towards gravelly and industrial, but it is a little weird that two of the songs are takes on the same song. Normally I'm one for the odd ducks and unusual experiments, but I think this one doesn't quite work. I knew a guy who was in middle school and tried to start his own band, and this feels amateur and edgy in the same way (he's gone on to make some decent stuff more recently, though). This one's just a little derivative, despite the album at first seeming like it is willing to take risks. Favorite track: I think I'll go with "F.I.A.T."

They seem very angry. But while they seem angry, they seem happy about it. Very interesting. I would not expect this to be music you hear in a doctor's office. Perhaps a tattoo shop or a car repair garage.

Never going to pretend a lot of the point of a politically pointed avant-garde satire project isn’t going to be lost when you can’t speak the language of half the songs, but - it’s still very interesting with the songs in English and with the military-industrial sound, and an authoritarian cover of One Vision by Queen does clear through the language barrier pretty easily. Not one I’m sure I’d rush back to, but a worthwhile spin.

What is even going on... a cover of Queen's "One Vision" but in totalitarian German? I would rather just listen to Queen. How did this album make this list?

Why do I kind of like this lol. Interesting album, interesting history. Don't think I'd listen to this fully though ever again but there is some legit fun stuff on here.

Now that’s what I’m talking about! This album Is so much more interesting than much of the nonsense that I’ve encountered on this list so far. I’ve never heard this album before and I’m only very minorly familiar with Laibach. I had a friend in high school who used to play one of their albums I think. So it was with great delight that I got to enjoy this fantastic album. I had so much fun on my late night drive home from work experiencing something unique and completely not boring. I don’t like getting into the exact song by song specifics of albums in my reviews. They’re usually bigger picture reviews. Laibach switches languages and styles across this collection, and I just have to say that I’m completely here for it. Bravo.

This is one of the few albums on this list that I had already listened to in its entirety before it appeared here. Personally, "Volk" is my favorite Laibach album, but how could I not love something like “Life Is Life”? Insanely original, perhaps the most original album on this list, super fun, with sounds you won’t hear on any other album here. And it’s not Britpop, finally! It’s a little strange that I enjoy such an edgy, industrial sound and so many synthesizers in music that isn’t synth-pop, but hey, I like it! The only thing that bothers me is the language barrier, which is perhaps why "Volk" resonates with me more. But that’s enough to knock off only half a star, no more. **4.5/5**

Musically there's some interesting and challenging material on this album that I did find myself enjoying. While listening, I tried to grapple with the political and aesthetic messages that I thought Laibach were communicating. In the end, I couldn't get past the uncomfortable conclusion that, no matter how ironic or critical it might be, this is still a fascist album.

I'm not sure what I listened to, but damn.

This album was up and down for me. It started off with me being downright annoyed, eventually a song hit that I was like, ‘this kinda bangs’, then back to be annoyed, then a song I enjoyed, and that kept repeating until the end. Also the album seemed like it hit a good end, then had to go one more worthless track to ruin that, so can’t give it higher than 2 stars.

Cool record. Very industrial and methodic, with some haunting overtones. The vocals pair nicely and really set the mood on top of what is already an ominous sound. Unique experience from this one.

Guttural anger and rhythmic angst make up a tribal expression of Germanic metal

Are we sure this wasn’t just a big joke?

I think the language barrier is really wrecking me here, cause the instrumentals sounds cool and the lyrics sounds like a chant or a war march or something? Seems neat but i just dont get it fully. I’ll rate it fairly.

Nope, never needed to hear this garbage.

It was interesting at least. Shouldn’t have used Churchills Speech though because now I just want to listen to Iron Maiden.

Didn’t hate it, but that may be because it’s so close to Halloween and listening to this album felt like being in a haunted house. 2/5 - what

I didn’t like it

For much of this album I had no clue what was going on! However, that didn’t seem to matter- I loved the sound, the vocals, the atmosphere, the originality (even the covers were crazy) and the European-ness.Really enjoyable. Going high 3 though considered 4. 3.49/5

The songs that were covers brought a smile to my face but beyond those found little to be memorable. I am unlikely to relisten to this but might terrify my niece by showing her the album art.

I think I just didn’t get it… Rating: 1.5

This was a surprise. I thought the music would be more metal-sounding. It seems the little I knew about Opus Dei was misinformed. It was very much a concept album, a little silly and over the top in places, quite dark in others. Theatrical would be an apt description of a lot of the sound. I would listen again.

The Good: we are in for a religious experience. The Bad: we are not religious... The Ugly: the smirk on the dudes face on the album cover... Excuse me for the following, however, what the fuck was that? Do I need to read out loud again the rules which Mr D himself wrote regarding what kind of album is allowed to be on the list, and which kind of albums are not? No greatest hits, no soundtracks... We've got Life Is Life, and we get Queen... and it's just all weird... and then I read where the band is from, which I would've sworn was Germany, to find out they are Slovakian... and things started to make even less sense... And then I get to, what I guess would have been side two of the album, and I find myself in Pink Floyd territory.. It's like they tried to emulate all the non-song-like songs from The Wall or Dark Side of the Moon, and give it their own twist... and I was starting to enjoy it too. So, what kind of score do you give an album that you know you only want to listen to one side of? Can't give it a 4*, but it also deserves more than a 3*... Shall we flip a coin? Heads and we rank it higher...

What the fuck? How did this make a list of essential?

This is a HARD PASS! Outside of a small moment here or there of a great guitar solo or semi interesting melody I enjoyed no other parts of the album. Barely a two.

Bro what is this. Weird as hell. That being said, it was interesting. I'd much rather have something be bad and interesting than boring.

To get this the day after To Pimp A Butterly and to give it a higher score......

Weird but entertaining

I wouldn't necessarily listen again, but this band is sick.

Favorite Song: Geburt Einer Nation Least Favorite: Jägerspiel

I missed the point of this it was a struggle to listen.

This is indeed fucking awful, but at least it's unique enough for me to not rate it one star.

German, would not know what to call this genre. Sort of poppy rock? Didn’t hate so can’t get a 1 but this is a very soft 2

Epic. Love finding albums like this on here. Ok so lots of people have already decided this is terrible, and whilst they may not be entirely wrong, I liked listening to it.

Well I guess it is unique and kind of a fun listen.

Would we all find this album such a hard listen if it were sung in French instead? Discuss….

I spent this entire album wondering if I was wrong in disliking it. Even now, I wonder what got this album on this list.

Aso s Best isch s Cover. Susch halt mal öpis (bis jetzt) einzigartigs. So viel besser macht‘s d Musig aber au nöd.

Instrumental was good but the vibe was off for the lyrics

i don't mind their overall sound here, but i'm not a big fan of the vocals at all; they really got on my nerves, especially on second listen. generally a bit of a slog to listen to in full.

Doing something interesting but not enjoyable

Rock n roll

Take one part Freddie Mercury, one part Wilhelm Wagner, and one part Leni Riefenstahl. Mix and bake at 350 for 40-minutes. Serve with your favorite Pilsner or Doppelbock.

Weird but good

nop.

This was interesting, some sort of German rock opera. I felt like I was at 4th teach rally but was kind of into it.

2.4 The industrial nature of the music is pretty cool, but the song choices made it sound a bit too much like a novelty album. Cool cover

File this under "must be someone's jam". A well-constructed assemblage of mini-movie soundtracks, hoarse German chanting, marching boots, echoey industrial drums, and other odds and ends. Probably significant and influential, but this whole wing of the music universe is pretty foreign to me, no pun intended. Couldn't begin to speculate on who this is for.

Weird album...never heard of it. Can't say I really enjoyed it that much. But I was glad it was on here just for diversity.

Industrial chanting Queen is not the best kind of Queen. Top track: "Geburt einer Nation"

What in the goddamn world is this shit? This is some nazi soundtrack shit. Matt Linville Music, frankly.

--Leben heißt Leben...oh my, this is going to be interesting. I guess this could be considered industrial. I hear some Rammstein, but that might just be the German lyrics --Geburt einer Nation...tempo is a little slow but it rocks. fist pumping anthem. Queen cover --Leben – Tod...some more industrial sludge. don't mind sludge but this isn't my thing so far --F.I.A.T....we're through the looking glass here, people --Opus Dei...a military march --Trans-National...industrial collage. nice, chunky bass in the back half --How the West Was Won...a bit of a slog --The Great Seal...sounds like the ending credits to a JRPG

Was very surprised by how much I enjoyed this. Not many of the songs were standout but it was just a good vibe to have on. Favourite song: Opus Dei Least favourite: Jägerspiel Per-song ratings: 443343333232

I think this is one where I'm happy the list put it in front of me but I would never listen to it again. I definitely preferred the first half of the album and thought they were doing some interesting things. I found the military stuff pretty uncomfortable but I think that's maybe the point. As the album went on I'd really had enough of it, and the last few songs were pretty difficult to listen to. Was ill the first time I listened and managed to fall asleep partway through. Seems mad listening to it now. Fav song: Leben heißt leben Least fav: Jägerspiel

Got a bit too military for me at points there. For something that I would never choose to listen to it was actually ok, but repetitive at times. I like the way they say Raus though. Specific rating - 1.9 Fav song - Leben heißt leben Least fav- jägerspiel

Their Wikipedia article claims they are the only band in the world to have performed in both north and south Korea and I'm completely fascinated by how that happened. In fact I am a bit fascinated by their whole vibe: it's like some insane piece of performance art. Are they Nazi supporters? Are they making a pointed critique of how much fascism has infiltrated everyday life (as they claim)? Are they having a big laugh at everyone elses expense? Even their name toes the line: its a historic name of Ljubljana last used in the Nazi occupation- was it a reclamation? Nazi support? A claim their city is still occupied? I fall on the side of believing it to be quite powerful political critique, but I also understand why people feel immediate repulsion at any Nazi imagery no matter how mocking. Uncomfortable but powerful. I really don't know how to rate this, I would never chose to listen to such military music but I have no doubt that I'll still be thinking about this album and this band for days to come. Favourite song: The Great Seal Least: Geburt einer Nation

This is what happens when you do gargles with kerosene.

Village People & Alphaville undergo industrialization, making for an interesting listen but not a very enjoyable one. Tongue-in-cheek nationalism falls on deaf ears, especially when you don’t speak the native language: the German is indeed a barrier for appreciation. Yet, this also loses its edge instrumentally & vocally, that is, it becomes a sonic monotony that either takes itself too seriously or doesn’t take itself seriously enuf, a balance that all great art must strike eventually & which this record doesn’t. I’m more than indifferent to its aesthetic, I think it offers a shitty aesthetic, one that reduces music to a mere concept, which is really to say that it’s boring. ‘Life is life.’ Yep…& bad music is bad music.

It is really bad

Some enjoyable smidgens, but a little too out there for me.

You know what, I'm here for the weird albums. Though I'll admit I had to go read Wikipedia to figure out if they were nazis or not. Probably not a good look.

This started off well, all very bombastic and tongue firmly in cheek while still producing decent industrial music, but really trailed of in the second half. One of the main issues i have, and i know it's petty, is that for someone with audio processing issues having the second half be entirely changing makes for weird listening - especially in another language! So ultimately, this ended up with me sitting for a good twenty minutes hearing angry people repeat "We hate countdown" and "We're dipping the pickle" at me... deeply weird.

This shit rips. Good stuff

Nothing like German growling over a backing sound machine track and a cuppa joe to start the day!

This was strange. I knew that Laibach was the German name for Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital. So I suspected they were a Slovenian band. As it turns out, they were founded long before Slovenia became a sovereign state. I am married to a Slovenian, but I have never heard of this band before. Many of you may wonder why they sing partly in German. Slovenia has strong historical ties to Austria, and the people usually understand German quite well. Ok, back to the album. It was a strange experience. First, the German lyrics. The wording is in parts similar to the language used by the far-right and neonazis. Next, the way they are singing. Strongly accented German, reminding me of the way Hitler, Goebbels, and other big nazi figures spoke. I am sure that this was intended. Finally, the strange industrial music- nothing I had heard before. Altogether, it forms a picture that may be understood wrongly, and this is surely intentional.

This may have been the most unique album I have listened to as a part of this project. I feel like there were so many layers to it that I struggled to pin down a lot. I will need to listen a few times to fully understand it.

Actually really enjoyed this, believe it or not, even though I didn't fully grasp a lot on the first listen. First and foremost, the whole thing feels insanely satirical. The music here jumps between big, anthemic and very cinematic, like with 'Leben HeiBt Leben', the title track, or the closer 'The Great Seal', and also dark and industrial, like with 'Leben-Tod' or 'How The West Was Won'. It's such a strange sonic palette, but it elicits a pretty sinking feeling like you're being emotionally manipulated by some super government, and you're helpless as you just fall for propaganda film after propaganda film. A gross feeling only accentuated by this gnarly cover art, which so perfectly captures the sound of this thing. It's not exactly something I see myself revisiting super often per se, but the initial experience was pretty unsettling and sort of menacing, especially with those deep, bellowing vocals on a bunch of these songs. Well, I did actually unironically like 'Opus Dei'; it was pretty catchy and enjoyable in its own right, all while still fitting pretty well into this album's aesthetic. This is the type of music you'd hear out of your TV 24/7 in some overpopulated, fascist-ruled Central European country in the '50s. So I'm not really sure why I liked it so much; maybe that's exactly why - it was a strange experience, and it'll certainly stick with me for the near future. Good pick.

1071 - "Here's your juice box and orange slice. Thanks for coming." (How do you say what the fuck in German?)

Very dramatic industrial sound. The vocals feel a bit over the top for my taste.

Heel leuke nieuwe ontdekking

Het schauspiele lied was er echt te veel aan

I didn’t hate it, although Slovenian avant- garde music does not appear to be my wheelhouse

Music hasn't made me laugh so hard in a long time. Actual tears of laughter, especially when the first "LIFE" was stridently intoned in Life is Life.🤣 There were some G.O.B. prancing to Final Countdown in Arrested Development vibes here. Some cartoon villain aspects. Irony. Completely over the top and Lächerlich.

I can only assume that the gravitas and pomp and ceremony treatment of the songs is a form of well executed self-satire. Impressively reworked versions of Queen songs, amongst others.

Definitely different...those crazy Slovenians!

It took me 9 days to listen to this because it was so bad. Had to microdose.

Reminded me of Kraftwerk a little?

I got about halfway through. Not my jam, but I see the appeal.

THis is amazing. Totally out there. I can think of a few bands that have clearly been inspired by this. The last few tracks are a but repetitive, and that drags it down a bit. 4.5 which I will round down.

The opening track had some fun bits, but overall not for me. Rating: 1.5

This is some pretty out there progressive stuff for 1987. I’ll give ‘em that. Slovenian industrial theatrics with goblin-grunt vocals. Sure, I’ll bite. But a “Work of God”? Hardly.

Ummm…huh. This was….interesting. What is going on with the 2nd song? Some 80s pop keyboard with some rammstein sounding singer. Props for the creativity I guess. But this did not work for me. Transnational made my brain hurt listening to it with headphones. I didn’t dislike this as much as other stuff but I skipped so much that I have to round down. 1.5

This album is so ridiculous that I want to love it...but I do not. 2.25/5

A tiny bit fun but generally worse German covers than the originals. 2/10

0.000

This is definitely some kind of artsy album with a meaning I don't understand

Spent the whole album thinking it was a German band, apparently they are Slovenian. Regardless, I don't know what to make of this. The music and some of the rhythm sounds alright, but it is so mismatched with the heavily accented vocals that I could just never settle in. It wasn't painful to listen to but it also wasn't enjoyable. Also it's kind of weird that they have essentially two different covers of a song (Life is Life by Opus) on this album only a few years after the original came out. Or maybe that was the point, but it just didn't hit for me. 2/5

Don't really understand half of what they are saying but enjoyed it

Slovenian military stadium rock! Life is Life appeared on the Waxtrax! Black box video compilation and it was a hilarious (to a teen me) intro to this band. I never fully understood them, and this album left me shaken, which is powerful.