Laibach were and still are just about the biggest IRL trolls on the music scene, if not anywhere in the world.
—Encyclopedia Dramatica on Laibach
Purpose: to provoke maximum collective emotions and release the automatic response of masses..
— Laibach on Laibach
Laibach is a Slovenian Industrial music group, formed June 1, 1980 in Slovenia (then Yugoslavia), built upon provoking thought via offensive and often Self Parodic aesthetics and are known for never breaking Kayfabe.
They started off their campaign with their name, which was the medievalnote German name that the Nazis reimposed on the Slovenian capital during World War II, from there, eventually leading to them being banned from Yugoslavia after a interview on state TV where they appeared in full Nazi regalia spewing nonsensical fascist rhetoric.
Of course they kept right on going, using a black cross as opposed to their now banned name, until the Yugoslavian government collapsed.
Between then and now they’ve covered almost every artist you can think of, gone through a whole roster of members, worn some unusual headgear, and founded their own state.
The current lineups are:
Volk
- Milan Fras - vocals
- Ivan Novak - lights and projection
- Mina Špiler - vocals, synthesizer
- Janez Gabrič - drums
- Luka Jamnik - synthesizer
- Sašo Vollmaier - synthesizer
- Eva Breznikar - vocals, percussion
- Nataša Regovec - vocals, percussion
- Damjan Bizilj - synthesizer
KunstDerFuge
- Luka Jamnik - electronics
- Iztok Turk - electronics
- Janez Gabrič - drums
- Sašo Vollmaier - electronics
- Ivan Novak - electronics and voice
Laibach 'music soirée'
- Dejan Knez - electronics and voice
- Srečko Bajda - electronics
- Marko Košnik - electronics
- Andrej Lupinc - electronics and bass guitar
Releases (Not including cassette & Vinyl exclusives):
- Laibach (1985)
- Nova Akropola (1986)
- Krst Pod Trigvalom - Baptism Below Triglav (soundtrack album) (1986)
- Opus Dei (1987)
- Slovenska Akropola (live album) (1987)
- Let It Be (cover album) (1988)
- Sympathy for the Devil (cover EP) (1988)
- Macbeth (1990)
- Kapital (1992)
- Ljubljana-Zagreb-Beograd (live album) (1993)
- NATO (1994)
- Jesus Christ Superstars (1996)
- M.B. December 21, 1984 (live album) (1997)
- WAT (2003)
- Anthems (2004)
- Volk (2006)
- Laibachkunstderfuge (Only on CD in Slovenia & Croatia) (2008)
- Iron Sky - The Original Soundtrack (soundtrack album) (2012)
- Spectre (2014)
- Also Sprach Zarathustra (2017)
This band exhibits the following tropes:
- Arc Words: United forever, featured in Rossiya
- Author Appeal: Laibach seem to like stags.
- Stags (in various forms) show up in many of their videos.
- A mounted stag's head was one of the stage props at their show in London 2012.
- The cover picture◊ of their early LP Nova Akropola is a stag.
- Bilingual Bonus: One of Laibach's best known songs is "One Vision" by Queen, sung in German. It has been re-titled "Geburt Einer Nation," which translates as The Birth of a Nation.
- Also the title of the Volk album - Volk means people/nation in German, and wolf in their native Slovene. The album is a collection of songs inspired by national anthems. 'Man Is Wolf to Man' ring a bell?
- And the cover features sheep
- Also the title of the Volk album - Volk means people/nation in German, and wolf in their native Slovene. The album is a collection of songs inspired by national anthems. 'Man Is Wolf to Man' ring a bell?
- Concept Album: NATO is about the collapse of the former Yugoslavia, written as it was occurring.
- Cover Version: This band is most famous for these, having covered (among others) Prince, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Queen, DAF, Europe and even Paul Revere And The Raiders. Also their cover of Opus's "Life Is Life" inspired the Juno Reactor song "God Is God", which they covered in turn.
- The Cover Changes the Meaning: All their covers are re-arranged in their trademark deadpan comic Industrial style.
- Department of Redundancy Department: "God is God" and "Life is Life"
- Genre Shift: Far from their current Wagnerian EBM, their early work was a No Wave inspired mass of ominous clattering percussion, guttural growls and Free Jazz influenced brass.
- Large Ham: Milan Fras imitates demagogues, so this is a given.
- Non-Indicative Name: Let It Be is a cover album of the eponymous album by The Beatles. Except the track "Maggie Mae", which isn't a cover version of the Beatles' song, but a combination of two German songs, "Auf der Lüneburger Heide" and "Was gleicht wohl auf Erden".
- Poe's Law: It's not uncommon that they're mistaken to be genuinely fascist, no matter how ridiculous they get. Most bizarre of them all was when North Korea, of all countries, invited them to perform at their capital, leading many to wonder if the authoritarian nation had finally grown a sense of humor or had just missed all the satire.
- Putting on the Reich: They originally wore Yugoslavian army uniforms, but later got some personalized black uniforms that hit this trope right on the head.
- Refuge in Audacity: Almost all of the time.
- Rock Me, Amadeus!: They performed a surprisingly straightforward interpretation of Die Kunst Der Fuge on synthesizers, and reworked Richard Wagner's "Overture To The Tannhäuser And The Singers' Contest At The Wartburg", "Sigfried-Idyll" and "The Ride Of The Walkyries".
- Stealth Parody: Probably the point of their totalitarian image gimmick.
- Shout-Out:
- In an interview, the band mentioned that they were influenced by "Tito, Toto and Tati."
- "Tanz mit Laibach" includes references in its lyrics to "Ado Hynkel" and "Benzino Napoloni", which were the names of the parodies of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in The Great Dictator.
- Signature Headgear: Singer Milan Fras always wears a distinctive cap with long skirts at the back and sides.
- Those Wacky Nazis: Big time with this trope.
- Trope Codifier: Of Martial Industrial music, later popularized by their
followers Rammstein. They themselves have described Rammstein as "Laibach for adolescents".
