VNV Nation, also known as Victory Not Vengeance,[1] are a British-Irish electronic music group formed in London and led by Ronan Harris in the roles of singer, songwriter and producer, with live members being keyboardists Mike Wimer and David Gerlach and percussionist Chris Roberts.

Ronan Harris was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, where he was exposed to electronic music via radio, from which he developed an interest in bands such as Kraftwerk, DAF and the Human League.

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.

[3] In 2001, it was re-released as Advance and Follow 2.0, with updated production, re-recorded vocals, and five bonus tracks, which include 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.

[2] Empires, released in 1999, was their breakthrough album, gaining them widespread commercial success and topping the German DAC charts for seven weeks.

Notable analog synthesizers used on the album included the ARP 2600, which was used for most of the sounds on the tracks "Firstlight," "Arclight," and "Standing," the SCI Pro One, and an Oberheim OB-1.

Their 2002 album, Futureperfect, while retaining many industrial elements, represented a departure in many ways, largely away from EBM and towards trance and synthpop.

Around this time Ronan Harris and Apoptygma Berzerk's Stefan Groth were credited with coining the term "futurepop" to describe their sound.

[5][6] This shift caused their mainstream popularity to increase still further, but alienated some of their fans who preferred their earlier harsher and darker sound.

Also of note is the lack of effects applied to the vocals, a departure from previous albums, which allows Harris' voice more space in the mix.

At the alternative electronic music festival Infest in Bradford on 26 August 2007, just after the murder of Sophie Lancaster, Harris dedicated the song "Illusion" to her and contacted the family soon afterwards to offer his condolences.

On the 10th, they played a standard electronic set, and on the 11th, they performed with Ronan Harris on vocals accompanied by a full symphony orchestra for the first time.

[23] A twenty-year anniversary tour called “Compendium 1995-2015 - 20 Years Of Work” was announced in 2015, with the European leg starting in Germany on 4 December 2015 and ending in Czechia on 20 April 2016.

[27] On 16 November 2017, it was announced that Mark Jackson, who had participated as live drummer at concerts since the mid-1990s, had left VNV Nation to “pursue other paths in life”, according to the statement made by the band.

[40][41] On 28 April 2023, VNV Nation released its eleventh studio album, Electric Sun, on LP, CD, and digitally.

[45][46] Electric Sun received positive reviews, with critics praised the album's rich soundscapes and innovative use of both vintage and modern analog synthesizers.