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VNV Nation's style is more like poetry set to an electronic track, which invokes emotions that are generally left untouched by mainstream music (which plays songs about two things: love and hate). Unique to their style is subtle allusion to historical events, which any good student can appreciate. PTF2012 is a great album in the techno/trance/future pop genre. VNV Nations invokes personal integrity, national pride and honor, internal conflict, determination and the list goes on. A personal favorite is the song "Procession", a powerful song, which really gets the listener energized, until the eerie lyrics reveal the underlying themes of the song, pointing out how frighteningly easy it is to turn our own passionate responses into blind rage. Although I prefer VNV Nations album "Empires", PTF2012 is a good compliment to it. VNV Nation breaks out of the the monotonous beat-box drone of a lot of stereotypical techno music, and delivers much more internally stimulating music.
And I now will look out for more VNV Nation releases. 'Joy', 'Solitary' and 'PTF2012' were the picks for me from this monumental album. The vocalist is dark and mysterious and for this style of music that is a underpinning success.
And this is my introduction to this hardcoreelectronica/industrial trance outfit. I am now a fan, this is a style of music that one can dance to, chill out too as well as have as background music for a party with friends. 'Praise The Fallen'is the title of this VNV Nation CD from 1999.
All the tracks are interesting to listen too, the drums are worked in well with the synths and industrial beats. If you like the works of Leeb & Fulber you will enjoy this from the anthem sounding VNV Nation. Being a Delerium/Front Line Assembly fan I saw VNV as my own personal progression to explore new music and new sounds.
I basically came across VNV Nation through Amazon.com reviews and picks and decided to buy this album to have a 'little taste' of what VNV is.
No reason to be found why reason did fail." And just as the listener has confined himself permanently to realms of night, the poet sifts through the destruction and demands to "Stand your ground this is what we are fighting for, for our spirit and laws and ways. Yet even in victory there is an impending emptiness and isolation, leaving the listener lost on the isle of doom and despair. The height of the journey comes with "Honour," an unimaginably intense philosophical questioning, a trial within itself, with an accompanying moving beat. Hopelessness and cries of injustice scream through and pervade every moment of this intense spectrum of light and darkness that ranges from moments of defeat to times of glorious victory.
From "Chosen" all the way through to the untitled hidden track, the music soars and falls like a bird with clipped wings, like a parade of souls searching for answers that never come. Or lament its aged, slow demise." Onward continues the journey with "Burnout," which seems almost like a burnout of reason, but thankfully we arrive at shore again with the epic "Solitary," which truly gives words of hope such as, "And if rain brings winds of change, let it rain on us forever. I have no doubts form what I've seen; I have never wanted more. With this line I'll mark the past as a symbol of beginning." This beacon of light is a welcome reprieve from the endless darkness that permeates the soul of this album, and we find ourselves even more thankful for the moments of remembrance and regeneration in the final three tracks "PTF2012," "Schweigeminute," which is a literal minute of silence given to the listener as a chance of reflection and contemplation, and the untitled hidden track. Listening to this album is like plunging yourself into a dark abyss and cutting your soul on a blade of darkness. To be human means to be accused, judged, and condemned by this testament to humankind, yet hearing souls will revel and glory in the condemnation, and the sentence is denial and death or acceptance and understanding. In "Chosen," the almost hopeless journey begins with railing accusations of scourges on mankind and inhuman deeds of 'cataclysmic, unnatural, and unreasoning' destruction. From the pit of desolation, the phoenix rises through the flames in "Ascension," an eight minute-plus voiceless refusal of surrender.
You will hear my voice." The darkness thickens with "Forsaken," an absolutely haunting song of sorrow that takes you on a lyric-less yet positively melodic journey into the abyss of human despair and loneliness. Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war. Overall, this is an utterly spiritually crushing yet intellectually and morally elevating work of art, and even better, it is but the genesis of the VNV Nation empire, whose genius continues in the insubstantial castles of darkness of Empires and its subsequent beam of light Futureperfect. Shall I think of honour as lies. From there, "Joy" fights back and shouts through with lyrics of defiance, posing such disturbing questions as, "Why do I love when I still feel pain; when does it end; when's my work done. For heaven or hell we shall not wait.
From the very start, humanity is on trial, and the evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of annihilation due to acts of extreme injustice and ultimate disorder. "Mothers stand in vain and cry" while the poet interrogates the by-now miserable listener with such propositions as, "Shall I recall when justice did prevail. Why do I feel that I carry a sword to the battlefield." From there, the march continues with "Procession," a song of vengeance and warnings of judgment and resurrection, disturbing the listener with such violent lyrics as, "And we who were so scorned will always wish to make their end, our words to still their voice, out hands to break their worthless necks." It then continues with words of future triumph like, "One day we'll see our names in stone where fires burn, the great who silent stood among you, never praised nor never known." The epic continues as "Voice" takes it from there and defiantly shouts, "We are not the same. There are times when the listener questions the motives and meaning for the music, but overall, it's a glorious tribute to those who have fallen into the pit of injustice and unmerciful disaster. Why do I fight.
The vocals are slow sloppy and untalented. The pentamiter of the lyrics does not match with rythym or bass. Listening to this vocalist is like listening to the jaw bone of a donkey being scraped along a chalk board in a wide hallway. VNV Nation is a terrible example of the music i love. Their compostition is weak, repetitive and slow.
The lyrics, although sometimes too preachy, are quite intelligent and compelling, and the times in the songs where they allow the melody to shine through are utterly breathtaking. Still, most of the other tracks can get too rough, or, suprisingly, too sedate.This, however, doesnt mean that VNV's first big album is bad. If the melodies in some of the songs were played louder and more frequently, this would be a brilliant album. If you are new to EBM and want to start with the sound of the Berlin Philharmonic being ripped apart by chainsaw-weilding Nazis (which this album is wonderful at creating), then I would reccomend this. The only songs that really manage to strike the balance (and also be the best tracks on the album IMO) are Joy, Procession and Honor. Praise The Fallen (PTF) is a very well conceived EBM album.
However, at times, the beats tend to overwhelm the melody.The melodies, although at times complex, are subordinated to pounding drums during some of the tracks, and this seems to grate owing to the fact that the beats are as rough as a cheese grater. In fact, it is very good. EBM is basically a lighter and faster variant of Industrial music, and even though PTF is significantly faster than anything put out by that bunch of anorexic labradors (by that I mean Skinny Puppy), it is not that much lighter. These songs are so catchy, and awfully danceable, that they would turn a retirement home into a rave. However, a softer (and more depressing) alternative for an EBM novice would be Failure by Assemblage 23.Although this record is too polar (your choice between sheet-metal instrumentals or boring ballads, with too few 'middle ground' tracks), it shows excellent promise and a vision that was fully realised in VNV's next album, Empires. The beats in this record are utterly ferocious, and this is not a bad thing.
However, the dark and haunting sounds are sometimes drowned in repetitive drumming all to often, resulting in a record that has less melody, and dramatic impact, than it potentially had.
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