Enhanced CD, Mute, 2003
www.laibach.org
Eight years after their last album, “Jesus Christ Superstar”, and after several rumours about their eventual demise, Slovenian industrial music legends Laibach are back with a new magnum opus: “WAT”.
Thematically, “WAT” focuses on the new millennium that has begun and the strife and obvious changes in global mentality and situation that took place since its beginning. Special attention is given to political extremism (whatever their motives may be) and religious extremisms that are at the origin of many, if not all, of the confrontations going on in the world. Obviously, there are references to the consequences that the WTC bombing had in the world order and the hysterical fear that such event created in US mentality.
Musically, “WAT” is closer to “NATO” in its militaristic, almost minimalist, beat-driven sound, with most tracks being almost spoken rather than sung. Laibach’s operatic style remains intact but the elements taken from the metal genre used in the “Jesus Christ Superstar” are gone. In addition to more “reflective” pieces, there are also a couple of dance-floor oriented tracks, the most obvious of which is “Tanz Mit Laibach” (inspired no doubt by D.A.F.’s “Tanz den Mussolini”) which quickly rose to the top of the Deutsche Alternative Charts.
Included in the CD version of this album is a video track of the song “Tanz Mit Laibach”. Stylistically, the video is true to Laibach’s self-created reputation for dubious political ideology being almost kitsch in some aspects but overall very effective in adding imagery to the song in question.
[9/10]
— Miguel de Sousa