Quit while you’re ahead

I recently got my hands on a promo copy of the new album by VNV Nation, “Of Faith, Power and Glory”. I listened to it, and I must say it is one of the most pompous, turgid and boring piles of uninspired rubbish I’ve ever heard. This was difficult for me to deal with, because long ago, VNV Nation were a band I really, really liked. I got into them via a compilation (as I have for many bands, compilations are an excellent way to discover new music) which featured the track “Solitary”. The track really impressed me, and I got the album “Praise the Fallen”, which blew me away. Their first, Advance and Follow, I got (as a reissue) a little later, and was also excellent. By the time they put out their third, Empires, they had hit superstardom status (well, to the extent that you can in the goth/industrial music scene), with some extremely catchy songs and dancefloor fillers like Darkangel. I felt the music had lost a little of its edge however, and was becoming a little soppy and self-indulgent.

A fair few years later came Futureperfect, which had a couple of strong tracks like Epicentre and Electronaut, but some real sloppy filler. Their lyrics and album artwork were becoming more and more pompous and self-important also, never a good sign. They were also around this time being ridiculed in the infamous “Afraid of SWORDS!” video (look it up, pretty funny). Not too long after that came Matter and Form, which really was a very poor album. Their “hit single”, Chrome, is one of the most boring and insipid tracks to get regular play in goth clubs since forever, and the slower ballad-y tracks were just terrible. There was no longer any hint of the anger or intensity that had driven such powerhouses as “Afterfire” or “Joy”, or any of the honest heartfelt passion that had driven such moving tracks as “Solitary” or “Forsaken”. Yet again, the subtext in the artwork, song names and lyrics suggested that this was drastically important stuff. By this stage I had well given up on the band I once loved. Yet more disappointments were to come.

A couple of years ago, Ronan inflicted Judgement upon an unsuspecting public. This was worse yet than Matter and Form, by quite a long way. The basslines and drum parts were all straight 8^th beats, with no interesting rhythms or accents. The synth lines were all soft and meek, with no hard sounds to catch the listener’s attention. Half or more of the songs were slow, self-indulgent ballads. I was disgusted with where this band had gone.

So now we’ve ended up with “Of Faith, Power and Glory”. Again, the title and artwork suggest this is a drastically important work. The PR junk that came with my review copy heralded it as a profoundly dramatic triumph of modern culture that reinvents their sound for a new era blah blah blah. And it’s a pile of utter shit. It reaches new depths of banality that I wouldn’t have conceived possible. I would in fact say that they have become the Matchbox 20 of industrial music.

To make sure this was still the same band I once loved, I dusted off my old copy of Advance and Follow and gave it a listen. It rocked! Sure a couple of the tracks were weak, but overall it had a power and intensity that’s hard to top.

Does this happen to all of us? Do we all get rich, fat and happy, and lose our passion? Lose our muse, lose the fire that burns in us and inspires us to create music that inspires other people? While believing that these terrible albums are actually the best thing we’ve ever done? I really hope not. And I don’t think it happens to all of us.

The single greatest concert I’ve ever seen in my life was Front 242 live at Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig 2007. Jean-luc de Meyer is into his 50s (!!), and has more energy than just about any performer I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen Front Line Assembly, but they’re in a similar age category and apparently put on brutal live shows. These people give us hope that we will not all end up like that sad little man Ronan Harris, full of pompous self-importance and utterly drained of inspiration and talent.