The personnel of PP has varied over the years, but the driving force has remained the same: Peter Spilles. He's got an instantly recognizable voice and delivery; a dramatic monotone that has a tendency to stick in the listener's head. Spilles is no eight-octave-ranged opera master, and he knows it. He has mastered his rhythmic chanting style, polishing it to a dirty shine. His voice flows comfortably from English to German, always leaving the listener looking forward to the message of the next line. The lyrics of Inferno are half of what makes it PP's best album. There is a common theme throughout Inferno: how the boundless potential of the individual is constantly threatened by an emotionless, doubt-inducing society. To quote "The Awakening": "It's a tricky world we are born into/there's a spiral down prepared for you/all you have to do is sell your doubts/to the one who pays the most." This is a topic that's easy to make mundane and uninteresting, but Spilles' casual intensity and poetic language cause the listener to take notice, and be moved. This is apparent in the first words of the opening track "Momentum": "These words are like paper ships/on the river of your attention/sent to reach your ocean/and sink into its depths." The force-fed dogma of PP's past, less mature work has all but vanished, and as a result, Inferno has a personal, profound effect that increases over time.

Musically, Inferno may not have the immediately gratifying energy and synth hooks of past songs like "Io", "Lam'Bras", and "Steelrose", but, much like the subtle impactfulness of the lyrics, the intertwining melodies of Inferno are masterfully crafted. No one can combine classic guitar, piano, and synthline into an electro dance track like Project Pitchfork. The band's musical focus has expanded tenfold during their career, and it's reached a kind of apex with Inferno. Like Rhys Fulber's recent (and similarly brilliant) Conjure One release, the difference between electronic and organic instrumentation may not be immediately apparent. The tracks move your soul ("Der Absprung" with its glorious synth/piano melodies), your feet (the layered percussives of "The Deepest Place" or the dancefloor-friendly "A Cell"), or both ("Lightwave" - a perfectly shaped intelligent EBM track). But then throw in the driving, guitar-heavy anthem "I Am" and the light, airy, meandering "Sinus" (consecutive tracks, in fact), and Inferno reaches far beyond the inconsistent, narrow focus of PP's prior efforts. It really is remarkable that Inferno encompasses such a range of musical styles while still flowing smoothly and retaining the album's identity - implications that PP have grown into masters of their craft.

As a long-time fan, it's marvelous to see Spilles & Co. finally fulfill their own potential, hinted at in bright fragments for so long. In an industry of superficial, cloned, and soulless pop music, it's comforting and inspiring to realize artists like Project Pitchfork are cruising just below the surface, waiting to be discovered and experienced. In the end, though, it's perhaps ironic that Inferno, their best work, may not seem as such at first listen. Its complexities may not hit you right away. Given time and attention, however, you'll learn to appreciate the depths of Inferno, one of the most intelligent, mature, profound, and carefully crafted electro albums of the past ten years. A highlight of 2002 - strongly recommended.


Are Project Pitchfork's best days over?   November 7, 2002
 2 out of 6 found this review helpful

Having listened to all of Project Pitchfork's past material, I am sorry to report that Inferno is probably their worst release. I wanted to like this one...I really did. The CD book layout is colorful, beautifully detailed and dramatic. I wish I could say the same great things about the music. The problem lies within the simplicity of the melodies...most tracks are slow and repetitive with monotone vocals. Inferno just lacks the heart that PP's other albums had. However, traces of Project Pitchfork's ingenious talent still remain within a couple of tracks. Your Cut Feather is every bit as emotional as their past hits such as Steelrose, Conjure, Timekiller, ect. Der Absprung and The Spoken Mirror are also decent tracks...it's a shame that the rest of the album is void of the same energy found in those few songs. Project Pitchfork fans may want to own Inferno just to have the complete history of the band, but I can't recommend it to those who are new fans of the industrial/ebm scene. For those just discovering Project Pitchfork, I suggest checking out some of their previous releases like Daimonion or Chakra Red instead.


Very Short Review   December 6, 2002
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I really like this album. I was one of the very few people who was not a huge fan of "Daimonion". "Inferno" brings to mind the feeling I got from "IO" and "Alpha-Omega" (my two favorite Project Pitchfork CDs). Every song on Inferno unfolds nicely to the listener, like watching a painter put oils to canvas. I haven't listened to it enough to get into the lyrics yet, but the music is fantastic. Ethereal...with a touch of darkness.

It's always hard to recommend a Pitchfork CD. It seems like everyone has their own opinion on what elements they like about the band. I, for instance, love "Eon:Eon", but my best friend hates that CD. Another friend can't get enough of "Daimonion", and I don't really care for it.

For what it's worth, all three of us love "Inferno".


INFERNO   February 12, 2003
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I must admit that I was a bit apprehensive about the release of this album. Daimonion was a great album, but also a very "safe" one. Almost every song had great dance-floor potential and a good melodic strength to it, but there just wasn't that much experimentation as on prior releases. The first album that I heard from P.P. was Chakra Red. I may be in the minority, but I loved that album. It took the presence and originality of classics such as Io or Alpha Omega but went in many different directions with the added touch of guitar and the heavy-handed percussion (ex: Malicious Delight, Human Crossing). Eon:Eon had some great songs, but I felt that it was more of a collection of songs than a cohesive album. It too was experimental in nature, but some of the songs weren't all that great and it didn't seem to flow as well. Inferno is exactly what I was hoping they would do with their next album. It has the passion and strength of the old classics and yet has a very gutsy experimental feel that I haven't heard since Chakra Red. They have continued to integrate piano/heavy guitar/clean arpeggiated guitar but more smoothly than in the past and the instrumentation has a slightly more organic edge than past efforts (Daimonion). Don't get me wrong, I love a good techno beat, but after 4-5 songs that all sound like Raver tracks, it gets a tad tiresome. I know everybody isn't into the whole "experimental" thing, so I will use a better term to describe the record. Evolved. This album shows a band that isn't content to just find a "sound" and repeat the same formula until fading away into stagnation.


Inferno   March 6, 2003
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Let me simplify the other reviews:

This is not a band to be compared to other emb/industrial artists. This is a band that other artists should be compared to...because it's who other artists want to be. This one takes a second listen (turning it up loud helps build your appreciation of it faster). It's yet another evolution in their style but is definitely of the caliber one would expect from them. If you like other PP albums, and you don't like this you're either not listening, or you've been missing the boat all along.