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Laibach are one of the most misunderstood bands in industrial music, and Opus Dei is the best place to see why. Released in 1987, it takes cheerful pop songs and rebuilds them as thundering, militaristic anthems. Some listeners hear parody. Others hear something more uncomfortable. Nearly four decades later, it is still the album most people mean when they say they know Laibach.
Who Laibach are
According to their official Mute artist page, Laibach formed in 1980 in the industrial town of Trbovlje in Slovenia, then part of Yugoslavia, in the year that the country's founding father Tito died. They became one of the most internationally acclaimed bands to emerge from the former Communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe, and later one of the first bands to perform in North Korea, a trip documented in the film Liberation Day.
From the start, Laibach worked as a collective rather than a conventional rock band. Their uniforms, imagery and deadpan statements borrow the language of power and propaganda so completely that the line between critique and performance is deliberately hard to find. That ambiguity is the point.
What Opus Dei does
The album is famous for its reworkings. The best known is the title track, which takes Life is Life, a huge European pop hit by the Austrian band Opus, and turns its singalong chorus into a slow, stomping march with a booming voice and martial drums. Mute lists the track as Opus Dei (Life is Life) in its catalog of official videos. Elsewhere on the record, Laibach give the same treatment to Queen's One Vision.
Hearing these songs this way changes them. Lyrics about unity, togetherness and one vision start to sound less like a party and more like a rally. Laibach never explain whether they are mocking that power or wearing it, and the album works because the question never goes away.
The sound
Opus Dei is heavy, but not in a guitar driven way. The weight comes from drums that sound like they were recorded in a hall, choirs, brass, sampled orchestral hits and a low, commanding vocal. It shares DNA with the early industrial bands on Mute, and points ahead to the grand, cinematic industrial rock of the 1990s. Our industrial music starter guide traces that whole lineage, and fans of the heavier American side of the genre should read our ranking of every Ministry album.
Which edition to buy
Mute has kept Opus Dei in print and gave it serious attention in 2024. The label lists Opus Dei (2024 Remaster) on vinyl with a 16 page booklet and as a 2CD box set, and released Opus Dei Revisited, a new interpretation of the album recorded by the band. The remaster is the version to get if you want the original record at its best. Revisited is a fascinating companion once you know the original, since it lets you hear the same ideas filtered through the band decades later.
On vinyl, the scale of the album makes sense. The drums have room to hit, the choirs have space around them and the cover art looks properly imposing. If you are building a shelf of essential Mute records, see our Mute Records starter guide.
How to listen
Opus Dei rewards a full, uninterrupted play. The album works as a sequence, with martial rhythms, choirs and deadpan vocals building a world that is equal parts parody and spectacle. Listen once for the sound and a second time for the ideas, and pay attention to how the covers shift meaning when the arrangement changes. The Mute Records site carries news on the band's catalog and reissues, so it is worth checking when you want to go deeper into their discography.
Who it suits
Opus Dei suits fans of industrial and electronic music, anyone interested in art that plays with politics and propaganda, and collectors who like records with a story behind them. It is also a very good gateway for people who think industrial music is only noise. The hooks are pop hooks, after all. They just arrive in uniform.
Where to buy
For more records from the darker side of electronic music, explore our industrial hub.
