Written by:	Abattoir
Published:	01.02.2024

The start of 2024 concert-attending for me began with a couple of local venue visits. After a fairly amateurish first gig featuring two Slovenian metal bands, the next opportunity brought to my vicinity a well-respected ensemble with international recognition. Without a doubt the (second) best known Slovene performers outside of our borders, considering all music genres, this band travelled across many borders around the globe, including, among others, two appearances in North Korea back in 2015. Yes, North Korea. The word is out about the industrial/noise/electronic experimentalist icons Laibach. Even though, in general, their music hasn't got much to do with metal, the Laibach collective have influenced a fair amount of bands coming out of the industrial rock/metal scene; for instance, Rammstein are one of them. For those who are unacquainted with Laibach, they formed back in 1980, and are not only a music group but also, as they called themselves, a "cross-media" group that expresses their work through various artistic branches. However, globally, they are mostly known for unique music creation and production.




This show was part of the band’s mini-Slovenian tour, occuring in the middle of their 'Love Is Still Alive Tour' across Europe, which began early last year and will continue this coming spring. The setlist was divided in two parts. The first part featured a performance of their 2023 EP Love Is Still Alive, an 8-track effort featuring 8 different versions of the song "Love Is Still Alive" from the Iron Sky – The Coming Race film. After a 15-minute pause, Laibach returned with the second part of their show, which included material from different past albums, such as Also Sprach Zarathustra, Wir Sind Das Volk, and Sketches Of The Red Districts. Of course, their repertoire could not lack some specially-made covers of the kind that Laibach are also known for, such as Leonard Cohen’s "Future" and The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy Of The Devil". Despite hearing it for the first time live, I did enjoy the first part of the set quite much. However, the second one, which was also double the length of the first one, was the classic masterful Laibach. More than 2 hours of hypnotic, complex music, using and combining along all sorts of genres/sub-genres (techno, classic, rock, pop... you name it) to make it even more unpredictable, as well as their unique vocals in three languages (Slovene, English, German). The overall sound was not on the optimal level, especially in the beginning of the show, but this is still somehow understandable since this venue is not often used for music events. I didn’t let myself to be bothered with it, especially on this occasion. I might be subjective, but I can assure you that seeing them live is not something to be missed when having a chance to attend. For me, this was the third time seeing/hearing them and every time is, somehow, a completely different experience of their audio-visual adventure. For an occasional non-metal gig, this one was quite refreshing.