0544. Laibach
Opus Dei

Starting both sides of the album with the same track might be seen as lazy, but as the tracks are Leben Heißt Leben and Opus Dei, a.k.a. the German and English language covers of Opus' Live Is Life and the band's called Laibach, all's good.

This Slovenian (ex-Yugoslavia) band / art collective's fourth album is a continuation of their questioning of, among other things, nationalism with Riefenstahlesque videos to the singles and revamping fairly simple pop-tracks into nationalistic marches. I mean, to take Queen songs and make them into Third Reich-sounding bits?
Effin' dangerous!

Their imagery has had an obvious influence on industrial and synth bands like Rammstein and others (in the former case it ranges from the ruthless approach and even down to the logo).

The album is closed with the NSK (Neue Slowenische Kunst) national hymn, just as bombastic as for any real nation, promising to defend their grounds til death. And, well, the songs are not always a perfect fit, but it's always brutal - from the monotony of the drums to the forced barytone of singer - and showing how alluring fascism and totalitarianism can be.