Trilogy – Froced Perspective (Digital/CD Album – Electro Aggression Records)
In my opinion, Trilogy is a rather underrated Electro project that emerged a few years ago. Founded and driven by former Trial member Erick Miotke and featuring vocalist Jens Müller (previously active in Human R3source), the German duo returned this year with the double CD “Forced Perspective”.
The main album contains no fewer than eighteen tracks, material the band worked on over the course of several years. As a bonus, listeners are treated to an additional disc featuring the exact same tracklist, but with every song reworked by a different remix artist. The album itself is an extremely elaborate and carefully crafted work in which inevitable Trial influences occasionally resurface, though the atmosphere feels distinctly different and the vocals give the project its own unmistakable character. Trilogy is not a continuation of Trial, but a band with a clear identity of its own. Musically, the influences move somewhere between EBM and Dark-Electro. Certain tracks evoke the atmosphere and precision of Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly, while I can also detect parallels with Yelworc. The compositions sound meticulous and polished down to the smallest detail. Dark string arrangements, refined icy bleeps, and old-school EBM elements merge seamlessly with pounding kicks and harsh vocals.
The extra disc is far more than a simple bonus addition. Not only does it revisit the complete tracklist, but each song is transformed by an impressive roster of remixers. I would especially like to highlight contributions from Sleepwalk, Serpents, Terminal State, AD:Key, Pyrroline, and Mildreda, all of whom deliver outstanding reinterpretations. Other notable appearances include T.A.N.K., Brain Leisure, Digital Factor, and the legendary Project Pitchfork. In some ways, this bonus disc may even surpass the original album thanks to the additional variety and perspectives it offers.
“Forced Perspective” is an absolute tour de force and an essential release for every connoisseur of intelligent Dark-Electro and EBM. (Rating:8½).
Side-Line covered the release ahead of shipping in “Forced Perspective” set as a 2CD on Electro Aggression Records.
Listen to “Forced Perspective”:
About Trilogy
Trilogy is a German electronic/industrial act built around Jens Müller on vocals and Erick Miotke on music, with Chris “Léo” Leonhardt as live drummer. The project was started after the end of Trial, the German EBM/dark electro duo formed in 1991 by Torsten Schröder and Erick Miotke. Trial stopped in 2011, and Miotke and Müller started Trilogy later that year. Müller had previously fronted Human R3source.
The duo issued the “Combat Surfer” EP in 2013. That was followed by “Combat Surfer – Remixed” and the live release “Trilogy on Trial – Live 2016” in 2017. In 2018 the band released the “Someone Inside” EP and “Live in Hamburg 2018”. The “Different World” editions followed in 2019 and 2020, and “Entombed Love” arrived in 2021.
Circling back to Trial, this was a German dark electro/EBM duo from Hanover, formed in 1991 by Torsten Schröder on vocals and live drums and Erick Miotke on keyboards. The project first surfaced with the self-released demo tape “Conflict” before signing to Hypnobeat. The duo broke through in 1992 with the maxi single “Blut Und Eisen”, followed later that year by the debut album “Zero Feeling”.
In 1994, Trial released its second album, “Secret Pain”, on Electric Blue/Ausfahrt Records. After that release, activity slowed, although the duo reunited for live work and later worked on the “No Fate” EP featuring nine mixes of the title track, recorded in 1997. In late 2008, “No Fate” was released on their own label Maxsoniq Recordings as a double disc of new songs and new takes on the duo’s classics.
Trial closed shop in 2011, when frontman Torsten Schröder left the project. In 2021, Electro Aggression Records issued the retrospective box set “Für Zwei” as a 3CD+DVD release to mark the band’s 30th anniversary and gather archive material, live recordings, reworked tracks, and unreleased songs. The label released Trilogy’s double CD “Forced Perspective” in 2026.
I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
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