 100.0% positive (12 ratings)
Buyer Rating: 100.0% positive (48 ratings)
Hardmageddon's groups (14)
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Reviews & Discussion:
VNV Nation
Sep 05, 2010
If this is not TOA's best vinyl, it's not far away...740Mhz has a beautiful melody that blends perfectly with the powerfull kick and overall harshness of the sound. Never boring to listen to it. Black lectroid is indeed somewhat creepy, but gets a bit boring sometimes. Above average for sure. The Shocktower is overall a good track. but... Oscillation Overthruster is my favourite TOA track ever... and I must say it's probably one of the best Hardcore tracks ever produced. The melody is astonishing and gives the ideia of something dark and transcendant, something lost in time, yet futuristic... the kick and patterns are amazing, and altough the track takes a while to "build up", it sure brings it down with fierce power... and leaves with a sense of something dark and distant hidden away... If not for the other great tracks, Oscillation Overthruster is surely worth it. For me, it's simply brilliant! 
Well, what to say? Amazing cover and artwork, good packaging.CD3 has good drum n bass, CD2 has a couple of good trance tracks. CD1 has 1 or 2 really good gabber anthems, a couple of ok tracks, rest is very dull and boring, cheap 1998 newstyle. In fact, the recording of CD1 is not very good and lacks power and volume. So basically this compilation could be awesome, but it's simply below average. 
Not entirely my style of Hardcore, has far too much mainstream stereotyped 1997-99 hardcore. Still, one note for the "Hymn" track. It was baes in the awesome melody + lyrics of Cabballero's "Hymn" released in 1994, based by it's turn in UltraVox's "Hymn" released in the 80's. The original by UltraVox sounds odd and does not even show the potential of the lyrics and melody... Cabballero does an outstanding remix, altough very mainstream, and in his trance version, he catches the melody just right along with a female voice. Stunned Guys give the final touch in turning this simple track into an epic: they add some "warcraft/LOTR-styled" samples, epic Hardcore synths and a kicking gabber beat... Still, not perfect, with more delevopment nowadays, this track could really end up something out of this world... let's way for a proper remix/re-take.
I'll tell you a little story about this record. I heard of it in 2004, when a person in the forum of my site told me he had a Thunderdome LP with the Dog. I did not believe at first, but after another sighting of a similar talk, I got the impression this could be true. Only after the first copy ever showed up on ebay I got really convinced. There was no picture, so I asked the guy to send it to me. Proof: it does exist and it's a Spanish edition! I put the picture in my site, which was the first site ever to show this record. The auction was weird, apparently the seller wanted to sell each of the 2 LP separatly (duh!!). I did not bid because of that. The whole record was sold to the person who put this record on discogs afterwards. Meanwhile, I could get my hands on one copy of this amazing 2LP.The music is "almost" the same as in Thunderdome III 2CD, except for the bonus tracks, specially Thousand from Moby which I miss so much here. Riot Squad, Lenny Dee, Tumor, Zekt, you name it... this is a record filled with classics from other records hard to find. A real treat! Anyway, the music is indeed very good, and despite the mediocre cover (also a classic by the way!) it manages to give this album a special feeling... both very hard industrial hardcore and almost mellow hardcore co-exist, just like they did in these oldskool days. A great record! 
This record has one of the best Goa trance tracks ever made... if not the best: Galaxian! It's very hard, fast, and altough a bit repetitive (that was the ideia tought!), it will blow your mind. It will take you in a mind trip out of this universe for sure! It's super envolving, and the melody is always subtly mutating, altough it remains basically the same, bulding up as the track progresses... The track starts with a really nice entry, and the transition to the progressive, nervous beat is awesome. In fact, progressive is what defines this track... psychaedelic to the max!The other side is also nice, an atmospheric trance sound, quite different from the previous, but still worth listening - a nice relaxing track. Carefull when you hear Galaxian in your car, you'll probably end up hitting over 150 km/h without noticing, pure adrenalin! ;P Now seriously, this is an awesome record, which every electronic music lover will probably like, from the Gabberhead to the Trance fan to the IDM freak. It's a great classic, that will never die with time, unique. The record is not very easy to get, but you can always find this track in Tantrance 1 (where I first heard it in 1996 and got addicted until today). 
After so many stuff I've learned and listened, I can look back and this and say, this was a good album...There are 4 tracks here where Scooter show their talent once again: Awakening (4:26) Coldwater Canyon (5:15) Zebras Crossing The Street (4:58) The First Time (5:27) Altough Break It UP can be considered a nice slow single, and Scooter Del Mar nice ambient music... these kick it off! Awakening is awesome Hardcore-Techno with a complete raving feeling and the special Scooter touch (a bit of MayDay nostalgia)... impressive! Coldwater Canyon is simply BRUTAL! This is trance at it's finest, I still haven't heard anything just like this... brilliant piano and melody... impressive power... Zebras Crossing the Street is actually a deep track (yup, I know, this is Scooter... SIBERIAAAA)... and it sounds awesome. The First Time is nostalgic... the kind of track you dedicate to a lost love - very well composed 
Hyper Hyper was indeed based in UltraSonic's tracks... not only in Anihilating Rythym, but others... it's like a mix, only Scooter had more sucess, partially because the track sounds better than UltraSonic's ones...Scooter is not an original in concept... UltraSonic was the real creator of this "live-shouting-techno-happycore" style. Personally, I've always like Hyper Hyper's melody... since it became a very famous track, of course it's either hated or loved, but still manages to bring back old memories... But this single has a very very special treat, a track that despite being in one of the most sold techno-galaxy singles ever... is completly ignored/forgotten: Rhapsody in E. This is one of the best tracks I have ever heard, and probably one in a Kind... I believe it's in the instrumental tracks Scooter show that despite all the mambo-jumbo-siberia-crap, they DO have talent. Yet, they prefer to cash in. This track, along with others is a very definitive proof... marvellous melody, samples, composition and a mood of nostalgia and futuristic embrace... unique. For me (and sorry for the blasphemy) this is PCP vs Chopin, but somehow Scooter made it! 
I could finally own a copy of this record. This vinyl is probably one of those records that made history by itself. 1990 was the year of release, altough "We Have Arrived" was made in the end of 1989. For most people in the Hardcore scene, this is considered to be the first Hardcore track ever, and altough this is kinda hard to proove, well... let's say it became more or less a time-mark. Marc Acardipane showed his real talent in this white vinyl, and literally gave birth to a style fused of techno and industrial influences, which nowadays has spread into so many directions and subgenres. But all those who care about the history of what their hear will come down to PCP, and to this one... "We Have Arrived" was an very appropriated title as you can see. Both tracks are completly out of this world and time. Almost 2006 and still as futuristic as ever. See you beyond 2017, if you ask me. :)
Ok, the first track is indeed quite good. It catches the "pounding" or "progressive" sound of Schranz, and makes some really nice Industrial Hardcore. A bit similar to Peaky Pounder sometimes, but quite good and harsh.But the rest of the tracks are completly different, and is basically Hard Techno or Schranz, or whatever it is called. A very poor way for TTM, that sees the "schranz" audience as a potential market, since this new trendy style is already using hardcorish-will-never-die-shout-lines and "evil" flyers looks, even hardcore loops and samples. Some sites of this subgenre even ingenuously claim they are the "hardest style of techno". lol Caught in this quasi-hardcore techno genre, TTM takes a giant leap backwards, trading creativity and hardness for a attempt to integrate into a much wider market than Hardcore or underground Hardcore. |
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Perpetual, Illusion, Prelude, Beloved, Legion, Defiant, Ghost, Secluded Spaces, Nemesis... are just some of their best songs, altough they have so many good tracks that fit into different genres, moods and artistical views.
Ronan and Mark do a great job both studio and live, with good performances that reach the audience, not only with a splendid interaction, but with soul on the music played.
I still think VNV Nation is not a band just for people into Industrial, EBM or Synth-Pop, but for anyone who likes good music, specially good electronic music.