Search - VNV Nation :: Judgement

A Mix of Genius and Matery

D. Dube | St Paul, MN USA | 03/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Back in 03 I stumbled onto the song Beloved by randomly downloading it, and after hearing it I fell in love with VNV. Harris and Jackson are definitely masters at their trade and this album is no exception! To be honest, I never thought I'd like another song as much as I do Beloved, but this whole album makes me reconsider that thought especially with Secluded Spaces, Illusion and As it Fades. Illusion is an amazing spiritual ride which makes one look at the world and their life own life differently. I recommend this Album to everyone!"

Judgement Takes VNV Nation and Brings Them Back to Form

Xanthos | Toronto, Canada | 10/17/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I should say off the bat that Futureperfect is easily my favorite VNV Nation Album followed by Empires, Praise the Fallen and Matter + Form. Burning Empires holds a special place in my heart just because of the Janus remix and Especially because of Saviour with Vocals.



In my mind this album has outdone VNV's previous effort of Matter + Form and even ranks slightly above Praise the Fallen for me.



So with that said JUDGEMENT is a Excellent album that feels like a change for the better after Matter + Form felt a little bland at times on the album, I loved the stand-out songs but felt they were too few and far between.



With Judgement the opening and closing songs alone did it for me more than anything else. I'm a huge fan of slow melodic vocal free synth music so those songs alone are probably the main reason I'm giving this album 5 stars as without them I would have probably given it a 4 1/2, that's how powerful and strong I feel these songs bring up the album.

I was hoping they'd open their live show with Prelude. They instead opening with the farthest star which is a good song on the album and pretty much sets the tone for everything else.



Descent being a spoken word style song was too different for me at first and now after over listening to many of the other songs gets its due attention. After believing it to be a filler song at first I've totally changed my mind on this one as well and now love it, much due to the fact that the lyrics and the malevolent energy it conveys is really captivating.



Following that Carry You is a very strong song that I actually completely disliked at first and was happy they didn't play it live at the time which was about 2 weeks after the album was released. After giving it a fair chance it's possibly grown into my favorite song on the album ironically next to Testament which is probably the song on the album that will catch your attention first. Momentum is another song on the album with an awesome change up part way through that drives the intensity through the Roof! Momentum completely holds its own and is pretty well the dance stomper of the album.



Illusion is the slow ballad like song on the album that ties Holding On for their best in this area, its highly catchy, a little commercial, but overall very good. However after over listening to this one initially I've found it does grow a little old unfortunately.



The only song that feels slightly weak on the album is Nemesis, although then again this is coming from the only person who seemed to cheer for this song live so maybe I really do like it, at least compared to others lol.



I don't understand how people can give this album a low review compared to all the other music out there. If this is a rating based on VNV Nation Albums and that alone and there can only be one 5 star album, one 4 star album, one 3 star album etc, then maybe. Even when I say Matter + Form was possibly their weakest album I still give it a 4/5, simply because its way better than almost anything else out there.



Overall a strong album from VNV Nation that seems to be taking them out of the slump they hit with Matter + Form and hopefully moving into newer, better territory... Just hopefully nothing too poppy!"

Brilliant synth composition and programming, poor lyrics.

Michael D. Mays | Deerfield, Illinois USA | 03/10/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"While I am traditionally a fan of VNV Nation, this release sort of disappointed me.



In my opinion and from my experience, VNV's strength is in their lyrics and the message they send. The music, while well-written and well-suited to backing up the verses that are so aptly weaved together, is secondary.



With this release, I feel Ronan and Mark have poured a lot of effort into making the backing tracks very enjoyable, and I feel Ronan sleepwalked through a lot of the lyrics. They are no longer as metaphorical or thought-provoking as previous releases. They're more straightforward, and they don't leave much to the imagination any more. Some people might enjoy that, but I prefer to have a healthy dose of wonderment at what the songwriter was thinking when they poured those words onto the paper.



Not only are the lyrics bland and uninspired, though... they're also repetitive. In all the music I've listened to, very rarely do songwriters rhyme a word or phrase with itself, and when they do it, it often (to me) ends up sounding like they couldn't come up with a way to round out the verse or chorus. Ronan has put at least two such songs on this album, "The Farthest Star" and "Carry You" (and possibly others that I don't remember since it's been a bit since I've listened to this). The choruses of both songs repeat their titles as a way of rhyming themselves, and I can't stand it. "Carry You" in particular ends EVERY line in the chorus with the word "you", in addition to rhyming "All the power in the universe conspires to carry you" with "All your powers and all your energies conspire to carry you". I mean, come on. That's just lazy, Ronan. I like both songs for their wonderfully written synth lines, which is a repeated characteristic of this album, but I have to sort of turn off my brain to the lyrics, because they just irritate me. I'd rather have VNV go back to some of their more prosaic songs, and I'm not even a big fan of that style of writing."