page_title: Laibach
section_title: Commercial success and after (1992–present)
hierarchical_section_title: Laibach / History / Commercial success and after (1992–present)
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Laibach, Pressefoto 2003
context_page_description: Laibach is a Slovenian avant-garde music group associated with the industrial, martial and neo-classical genres. Formed in the mining town of Trbovlje in 1980, Laibach represents the musical wing of the Neue Slowenische Kunst collective, a group which Laibach helped found in 1984. "Laibach" is the German historical name for the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, itself an oblique reference to the Nazi occupation of Slovenia in World War II.
  From the early days, the band was subject to controversies and bans due to their elaborate use of iconography with ambiguously repugnant parodies and pastiches of elements from totalitarianism, nationalism and militarism, a concept they have preserved throughout their career. Censored and banned in Socialist Yugoslavia and receiving a kind of dissident status, the band embarked on international tours and gradually acquired international fame. After Slovenia became independent in 1991, Laibach's status in the country has turned from rejection to promotion into a national cultural icon, which included performances with the Slovenian symphony orchestra.
  Early Laibach albums were pure industrial, with heavy rhythms and roaring vocals.
context_section_description: During 1991, Slovenia became an independent state.
  In 1992, the group released Kapital an album featuring their own vision of materialism. The following year, Mute Records released the Ljubljana–Zagreb–Beograd live album, recorded at performances in the three cities in 1982, presenting a document of politically active rock from the group's early career, especially in the songs "Tito-Tito", "Država" ("The State"), and "Rdeči molk" ("Red Silence"). In 1994, they released the album NATO, which commented on the current political events in Eastern Europe, former Yugoslavia and the actions of the NATO pact, filtered through their vision of techno and pop. The album featured cover versions of Europe's "The Final Countdown", Bolland & Bolland's "In the Army Now", Don Fardon's "Indian Reservation" (renamed to "National Reservation"), and the Stanislav Binički composition "Marš na Drinu" ("March on the Drina").
  Following the album release, the group went on the Occupied Europe NATO Tour 1994-95, resulting in the live and video album of the same name, which featured a selection of recordings from the two-year tour, including the performance in Sarajevo on the date of the signing of the Dayton Agreement. In 1995, the group for a while considered splitting into several simultaneous lineups so that they could perform in different places at the same time, but the idea was abandoned. The following year, the group released Jesus Christ Superstars, a reference to the Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. The group promoted the album in the US with an eighteen-date tour, as well as a German tour.
  On 15 May 1997, the group performed with the Slovenian symphony orchestra, conducted by Marko Letonja, and the "Tone Tomšič" choir, for the opening ceremony of the Ljubljana European Month of Culture, presenting orchestral versions of their earliest material, which they rarely performed live, arranged by Uroš Rojko and Aldo Kumar with the members of the group.  During the same year, the live album M.B. December 21, 1984 was released, featuring recordings of the forbidden concert in the Ljubljana Malči Belič Hall, a February 1985 concert at the Berlin Atonal festival, and the April 1985 performance at the Zagreb club Kulušić.  The performances had featured a guest appearance by Jože Pegam on clarinet and trumpet, and recordings of Tito's speeches. On 14 November 1997 at a concert in Belgrade, another Peter Mlakar speech received a decidedly mixed audience reaction (in sharp contrast to the 1989 speech), in which he asked the audience to "eat the pig and digest it once and for all", referring to the then president Slobodan Milošević.
  In 2003, the group released the album WAT (an acronym for We Are Time), which, as well as new material, featured the song "Tanz mit Laibach" (German for "Dance with Laibach"), inspired by the German band D.A.F.  The song lyrics were co-written with Peter Mlakar, and the music was co-written with the producer Iztok Turk (former member of Videosex) and the DJs Umek, Bizzy and Dojaja.  The following year, the group released a double compilation album Anthems, featuring a career spanning selection of material as well as the previously unreleased song "Mama Leone", a Drafi Deutscher cover, and remixes by Random Logic, Umek, Octex, Iztok Turk and others.  The compilation also features a thorough group biography written by Alexei Monroe.  The group also released two DVD's: the first, Laibach, featured music videos, including a new music video for the song "Das Spiel ist aus", and A Film about WAT directed by Sašo Podgoršek.  The second DVD was 2 with a recording from the Occupied Europe NATO Tour concert in Ljubljana on 26 October 1995 and A Film from Slovenia, directed by Daniel Landin and Peter Vezjak.
  In 2004, the group recorded The Divided States of America – Laibach 2004 Tour, released on DVD in 2006 and directed by Sašo Podgoršek during the group's fourth USA tour. During 2006, the group released the album Volk (Slovenian for Wolf, German for People), featuring cover versions of national anthems, inclu
caption: LAIBACH Press Photo 2003
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