Line #5 Music/VNVNation


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/8016083.jpg]]
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3	VNV Nation is an ElectronicMusic project which has made work in multiple genres; predominantly Electronic Body Music, Futurepop (both of which are subgenres of {{Industrial}}), and SynthPop.
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5	Their first albums; ''Advance And Follow'' and ''Praise The Fallen'' had a sound best described as "Symphonic EBM." Their breakthrough album, ''Empires'', evolved the sound by incorporating the influence of {{Trance}} music. The result was the TropeCodifier for Futurepop and many still consider ''Empires'' the best Futurepop album ever made. The following album, ''Futureperfect'', increased the trance influence slightly, leading some of their fanbase to argue TheyChangedItNowItSucks. Afterwards, the album ''Matter + Form'' was released; the album demonstrated a more 'retro' sound based on vintage analog synthesizers and incorporated more SynthPop influence than usual. ''Judgment''; released in 2007, continued this trend but with more frequent nods towards the groups {{Industrial}} heritage. Ditto for 2010's ''Of Faith, Power, and Glory''.
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7	In 2012, the band played at the first Gothic Meets Klassik in Leipzig, which marked the first time they performed with an orchestral ensemble. They recorded their performance to be released, but the resulting recording was deemed unusable. This led to their next album, ''Resonance'', released in 2015.
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9	!!Discography:
10	* ''Advance and Follow'' (1995)
11	* ''Praise the Fallen'' (1998)
12	* ''Empires'' (1999)
13	* ''Futureperfect'' (2002)
14	* ''Matter + Form'' (2005)
15	* ''Judgement'' (2007)
16	* ''Of Faith, Power and Glory'' (2009)
17	* ''Automatic'' (2011)
18	* ''Transnational'' (2013)
19	* ''Resonance: Music for Orchestra Vol. 1'' (2015)
20	* ''Noire'' (2018)
21	* ''Electric Sun'' (2023)
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23	!!This band's music provides examples of:
24	* AlbumTitleDrop: "Honour" on ''Praise the Fallen''.
25	* TheAntiNihilist: "Kingdom" (from ''Empires'') sounds at first like it's an example of StrawNihilist, but it's actually about this, as made clear by the chorus:
26	-->''And I believe that we'll conceive / To make in hell for us a heaven / A brave new world / A promised land / A fortitude of hearts and minds / Until I see this kingdom's mine / I'll turn the darkness into light / I'll guide the blind / My will be done until the day / I see our kingdom has been won'' - "Kingdom"
27	* CallBack: "Tomorrow Never Comes" from ''Of Faith, Power and Glory'', while still containing it's title in the lyrics, also takes it's name from "Testament" from the prior album ''Judgement'' where the phrase is featured prominently in the chorus.
28	* CrowdSong: Not intended as such but it has become something of a tradition to sing along to the opening melody and the ending lines of ''Perpetual''.
29	* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Praise The Fallen'' is lyrically noticeably darker than their debut.
30	* DespairEventHorizon: The speaker in "Forsaken", off of the ''Solitary'' EP.
31	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Advance and Follow'' is mostly a straightforward EBM album with a few symphonic elements sprinkled here and there. ''Praise the Fallen'' is mostly the same, albeit with a greater focus on melody.
32	* EpicRocking: They don't rock ''per se'', but they have a goodly number of fairly long songs- outstanding examples are "Ascension", "Solitary", "Beloved", "Airships", "Strata" and "Interceptor" (effectively [[SiameseTwinSongs one song split into two tracks]]), "Perpetual", "Radio" and "Teleconnect Pt. 2", all of which are well over 7 minutes. Listing all the songs that go above 6 minutes would be a fruitless exercise- that's more than half their total number of songs...
33	* EpicInstrumentalOpener: Most of their albums open with these. Many are part of SiameseTwinSongs.
34	* EtherealChoir: Synths imitating this sound are common in their songs- "Electronaut" and "Lost Horizon" are good examples.
35	* FadingIntoTheNextSong: Happens from time to time.
36	* GenreShift: On their first three albums, they gradually shifted from fairly standard EBM fare to the {{Trance}} and SynthPop-influenced sound that characterized the Futurepop subgenre. On ''Futureperfect'', they upped the {{Trance}} influence somewhat. Later albums up the SynthPop quotient instead, though the core sound is still Futurepop.
37	* HumansAreFlawed: A major theme of their songs, sometimes going in to HumansAreBastards.
38	* IAmTheBand: VNV Nation's recording lineup since it's inception has consisted solely of founder Ronan Harris. Mark Jackson performed live drums for the band from 1996 to 2017, but while he was considered a member of the band, he never performed on any of their albums (although he has been credited for "valued input" and "verbal support and constructive criticism" variously).
39	* {{Industrial}}: More specifically, the EBM (on the first two albums) and Futurepop subgenres. They are also the TropeCodifier for the latter.
40	* {{Instrumentals}}: Quite a few, including:
41	** "Anthem", "Amhráin Comhrac" and "Fiume" from ''Advance and Follow''.
42	** "Chosen", "Forsaken", "Ascension", "Burnout", "[=PTF=]2012" and the untitled track from ''Praise The Fallen''.
43	** "Firstlight", "Saviour" and "Distant (Rubicon II)" from ''Empires''.
44	** "Foreword", "Electronaut" (except for the odd vocoder-heavy recitation of the title), "Liebestod", "Structure" and "4am" off ''Futureperfect''.
45	** "Intro", "Colours Of Rain", "Strata", "Interceptor" and "Lightwave" from ''Matter + Form''.
46	** "Prelude" and "As It Fades" from ''Judgement''.
47	** "Pro Victoria" from ''Of Faith, Power and Glory''.
48	** "On Air", "Goodbye 20th Century" and "Photon" off ''Automatic''.
49	** "Generator", "Lost Horizon" and "Aeroscope" from ''Transnational''.
50	* IntercourseWithYou: The quite ironically titled "Cold" from ''Advance and Follow''. A good example of the tendency of such songs in {{EBM}} to sound somewhat aggressive.
51	* LighterAndSofter: Musically, they've become less abrasive on their most recent albums. Lyrically, nothing they've done since ''Praise The Fallen'' really matches that album for sheer misery.
52	* LonelyPianoPiece: "From My Hands".
53	* MadLibsDialogue: Their remix of Apoptygma Berzerk's "Kathy's Song" begins with a Microsoft Sam-esque voice reading out an extended/modified version of [[Literature/BookOfGenesis Genesis 1:1]]
54	* MadnessMantra / SurvivalMantra: "Fearless", from ''Futureperfect'', has a mantra as part of its chorus that really blurs the line between the two and counts as both:
55	-->''I am not alone / I am not afraid / I am not unhappy / These are the words I say to myself every day''
56	* NewSoundAlbum: All of their first three albums are obvious examples of this, especially ''Empires''. ''Futureperfect'' is another slight example, since it ups the {{Trance}} quotient some. ''Matter + Form'' adds harder, more "live"-sounding drum loops to the equation from time to time as well as more distorted synth sounds, and ''Automatic'' noticeably ups the SynthPop aspect of their sound.
57	* OfferVoidInNebraska: At some point in 2014, the digital version of ''Automatic'' mysteriously vanished from every online retailer in the United States, forcing users to either buy a physical album or jump through hoops to buy the digital album on a foreign website, possibly as the result of a record label conflict.
58	* ShoutOut: "Art of Conflict" directly quotes Sun Tzu's ''[[Literature/TheArtOfWarSunTzu The Art of War]]''.
59	* SiameseTwinSongs: "Strata" and "Interceptor" off ''Matter + Form'' are basically one song split in two. Also, many of the intro {{Instrumentals}} count as this when combined with the first actual songs on their respective albums.
60	* SillyLoveSongs: "Beloved" from ''Futureperfect''.
61	* SpokenWordInMusic: Fairly often.
62	* SynthPop: A prominent influence on the sound from their second album on, and their later albums are arguably full examples of the genre.
63	* TitleDrop: "Honour" from ''Praise the Fallen''. Also done again in ''Automatic'' with "Control".
64	* TropeCodifier: For the Futurepop subgenre of {{Industrial}} Music.
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Context Music / VNVNation