VNV Nation - Praise The Fallen (CD 1998)

EBM, or futurepop, call it what you will however VNV are up there amongst the best when it comes to this genre of music. Having heard Kingdoms (from the Empires album) I thought I'd explore a bit further by buying PTF. In my view a solid and highly addictive album.

Opening with "Chosen", a short monologue put to haunting music, it sets the scene for the album 'thanking their gods to the sound of cannon'. "Joy", whilst probably my least favourite track on the album, ups the tempo. The gutteral voice and slight distortions reminded me of the early Covenant, but the futurepop construct in the track is very much evident. This sharp electronic sound carries through the next two tracks (Voice being a great track to drive to!). "Foresaken" again drops the pace down with an almost dream like sound and not to think the ride is over, "Ascension" picks it up again with another pulsing beat (no lyrics in a number of tracks but I find it creates an entire package with the tracks on VNV albums, rather than one off songs stuck together). My personal favourite "Honour" up next next with some excellent sound bites built in with the thumping beat, you can't help but get the power of the words and emotion of the song with the cadence of this track. "Burnout" has an amusing opening with some wonderful old movie soundbites as the intro before moving again into the distorted electronic sound VNV use regularly.

"Solitary" brings the tempo down again before settling into "PTF2012" which in my view simply serves to illustrate the versatility of the band. A classical track created electronically that would not have been out of place in the closing credits of a film or even a hovis advert!

If you like electronic music, confess to foot tapping to bands like Depeche Mode, or even have a penchant for moody music with lyrics that have imagination and thought behind them, then give VNV Nation a try. This album is worth taking the chance on if you want to break from the mundane