Opus Dei (album)

Opus Dei
Studio album by Laibach
Released	March 23, 1987
Genre	Martial industrial neoclassical dark wave
Length	37:17 (LP version) 58:60 (CD version)
Label	Mute
Producer	Rico Conning
Laibach chronology
Nova Akropola (1986) Opus Dei (1987) Let It Be (1988)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[2]

Opus Dei is the third studio album by the Slovenian and Yugoslav avant-garde music group Laibach, released on March 23, 1987 by Mute Records. It features "Geburt einer Nation" ("birth of a nation"), a German language cover version of Queen's "One Vision", and two reworkings of "Live Is Life" by the Austrian pop rock band Opus'. The Opus song became the German language "Leben heißt Leben" and the English language "Opus Dei". "The Great Seal" is the national anthem of the NSK State, the lyrics taken from Winston Churchill's 1940 "We shall fight on the beaches" speech. A new arrangement of the song appears on Laibach's seventh studio album Volk (2006), with the title "NSK". On Volk, the song is credited to Laibach and Slavko Avsenik Jr.

There are two further connections with Queen's A Kind of Magic studio album. Although the drum loop in "Trans-National" is nearly identical to that in Queen's "Don't Lose Your Head", it is composed in fact from samples from the introduction musical theme from the Yugoslavian epic partisan film Battle of Neretva (1969), composed by Bernard Herrmann.^{[ citation needed ]} The elements of "How the West Was Won" (specifically the rhythm and harmonised guitars) are inspired by Queen's "Gimme the Prize (Kurgan's Theme)".^{[ citation needed ]}

The album was included in the musical reference book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2006). ^[3] In 2023, Consequence ranked it at number 6 in its list of the "50 Best Industrial Albums of All Time". ^[4] Al Jourgensen of the American industrial metal band Ministry named it one of the ten essential industrial records. ^[5]

In December 2024, Laibach released Opus Dei Revisited, a "collection of new versions which radically interrogate the source material". The release consists of two complete versions, the first reworked by the band themselves and the second by Rico Conning, who produced and mixed the original album. ^[6]

The cover picture is a reworked version of the Werner Peiner painting A Demon of the hour (Terror) from 1944.

Track listing

1. "Leben heißt Leben" (Live Is Life)(Opus) – 5:28
2. "Geburt einer Nation" (Birth of a Nation)(Queen) – 4:22
3. "Leben – Tod" (Life – Death)(Laibach) – 3:58
4. "F.I.A.T." (Laibach) – 5:13
5. "Opus Dei" (Opus) – 5:04
6. "Trans-National" (Laibach) – 4:28
7. "How the West Was Won" (Laibach) – 4:26
8. "The Great Seal" (Laibach) – 4:16

+ On CD editions, 4 tracks from Baptism :

1. "Herz-Felde" (Heartfield)(Laibach) – 4:46
2. "Jägerspiel" (Hunters' Game)(Laibach) – 7:23
3. "Koža" (Skin)(Laibach) – 3:51
4. "Krst" (Baptism)(Laibach) – 5:39

References

1. "Opus Dei - Laibach". AllMusic.
2. Larkin, Colin (1998). "Laibach". Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Groves Dictionaries. pp.  3110. ISBN   1-561-59237-4.
3. Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (7 February 2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe Publishing. ISBN   0-7893-1371-5.
4. "50 Best Industrial Albums of All Time". Consequence . 17 July 2023. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
5. Kaufman, Spencer (19 July 2023). "10 Industrial Albums Ministry's Al Jourgensen Thinks Every Music Fan Should Own". Consequence . Retrieved 2024-04-03.
6. Ruly, Marta (2024-12-13). "Laibach Revisit Their 1987 Album 'Opus Dei'". Mute . Retrieved 2025-01-06.

External links

• Opus Dei (Adobe Flash) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed)
• Opus Dei at Discogs (list of releases)