VNV Nation

VNV Nation
VNV Nation Live at New City, Edmonton, September 2007
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genres	Synthpop, futurepop, EBM
Years active	1990–present
Labels	Anachron, Dependent, Discordia, Energy, Metropolis, Off-Beat, SubSpace, Wax Trax!/TVT
Associated acts	Modcom
Website	http://www.vnvnation.com
Members	Ronan Harris, Mark Jackson

VNV Nation is an English/Irish electronic music band originally from Dublin and Essex and now based in Hamburg, Germany. They combine elements of synthpop, trance and electronic body music (EBM). The members are Ronan Harris and Mark Jackson. The "VNV" in the name stands for "Victory Not Vengeance", in keeping with the group's motto, "One should strive to achieve, not sit in bitter regret."

The group's first release, Advance and Follow, came out in 1995. Advance And Follow featured industrial electronic beats heavily influenced by middle-era EBM acts such as Nitzer Ebb and Front 242, along a mixture of danceable synthesizer melodies, and elements of orchestral music. Although it was the band's first full-length release, Harris regards "Advance and Follow" more as a set of demos than a proper album. In 2001 it was re-released as Advance And Follow 2.0, with updated production, re-recorded vocals, and five bonus tracks including two Front 242 covers.

Their next release, Praise the Fallen in 1998, continued largely in this vein, and they began to enjoy a larger degree of commercial success.

During that time Harris also wrote for the online magazine Side-Line of which he was the webmaster until 1999.

Empires, released in 1999, was their breakthrough album, gaining them widespread commercial success and topping the German DAC charts for seven weeks. Empires expanded on the band's bombastic, melodic synthesizer lines and incorporated tighter song structures. Furthermore, the harsher 'sheet metal instrumentals' of Praise the Fallen were largely gone, and the music as a whole was far more complex with multiple-layered arpeggios and pads. This album was composed using only one synthesizer (the popular Access Virus) and two (rather low-quality) samplers.