History
Project Pitchfork was formed by Peter Spilles and Dirk Scheuber. After agreeing to work together, they picked the project's name by choosing a random word from the dictionary. The band gave their first performance in Hamburg in February 1990 and released their demo, "K.N.K.A", in August. In May 1991, their debut album "Dhyani" was released. The band's second album, "Lam-'Bras" was released in February 1992 and yielded the first vocal appearance of Patrica Nigiani. Six months later, the band's third album, "Entities" was released. The band switched labels to Off Beat for their 1994 release "Io". The album featured two singles, "Renascence" and "Carrion", and marked the first time the band entered the German Charts. The album was followed by a lengthy German tour.
In 1995, Project Pitchfork established their own label, Candyland Entertainment, through which they would release the majority of their material. 1995 also saw the release of two EPs, "CH'I" and "Corps d'Amour", and one album, "Alpha Omega". The year finished off with a tour supported by Rammstein. The next Project Pitchfork studio album "¡Chakra:Red!" was released in 1997. It was the first album since "Dhyani" to be written as a group effort, rather than by Peter Spilles alone, and the first to include Jürgen Jansen as a permanent band member.
Right after their first US tour in 1998, Project Pitchfork returned with concept album "Eon:Eon", their first while signed to label EastWest. The album yielded three singles, "Steelrose", "Carnival", and "I Live Your Dream". With the support of Eastwest, an imprint of the major label Warner Music), the band had greater resources available to produce videos for their music, which led to their being the first gothic industrial band to receive airplay on music TV in Germany. The video for "Steelrose" earned the band a nomination for an Echo Award for Best Video National. In 2001, the band released their eighth studio album "Daimonion" and supported the album with a European tour. In 2002 the band released the "NUN" trilogy which consisted of album "Inferno" and EPs "View From a Throne" and "Trialog". This earned the band another nomination for an Echo Award, this time for Best Alternative Act National.
Project Pitchfork returned with album Kaskade in 2005. In February 2009 the band released "Dream, Tiresias!" which received praise from electronic music magazine, ReGen. In 2010 the band's follow up album "Continuum Ride" was released along with a video to support the song "Beholder." "Continuum Ride" was inspired by the band's US tour in 2009, particularly their experience of Detroit, whose dilapidated skyline led to a more "dark and destructive" sound than that of their previous album.
By 2011 Project Pitchfork ceased operating their Candyland label, having since begun releasing their work on the Trisol label.
The band released "Quantum Mechanics" in 2011 as well as a video for the album's second track, "Lament". Later that year the band released a compilation album titled "First Anthology". In 2013 the band released their fourteenth studio album, "Black", and a music video to accompany the song "Rain". In June 2014, the band announced via their official website a new album titled "Blood". To promote the record the band held a pre-release show in Hamburg. The album was released in September and featured a music video for "Blood-Diamond (See Him Running)" edited by Peter Spilles himself.
In 2016, Project Pitchfork released their "Second Anthology", a double CD that included one new track, several unreleased rarities, and many re-recorded and remastered tracks. Also in 2016, the band released the album "Look Up, I’m Down There" to commemorate their 25th anniversary. The album was released in two versions: a standard CD release and a special, limited edition double CD wth an 80 page art book containing complete lyrics and a short story by the fantasy author Björn Springorum.
In 2018, the band released the album "Akkretion", the first of what was planned to be a trilogy of albums for release that year. Of the remaining albums of the trilogy, only the second, "Fragment," was released.
Starting in 2019, Trisol began releasing reissues of all the band's material over the previous decade from "Dream, Tiresias!" through "Look Up, I'm Down There".
Omega Alpha
Project Pitchfork Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Living in a dark place
Imagine a child
Being accused of being a failure
Nothing is right
Everything is wrong
Imagine this child
Which pays no attention
To its positive behavior
Always noticing
The bad things
Imagine a person
Appearing on this scene
Giving love, giving love
Giving back its selfesteem
This child will turn away
From its hopeless past
And continue its life
In conscience and trust
The same could be with humanity
Same could be with humanity
Alhpa Omega
Alpha and Omega
Small things are big
Huge things are small
Tiny acts have huge effects
Everything counts
Nothing's lost
Imagine a crayfish
Thrown into boiled water
It will try to escape
As fast as it can
But imagine this crayfish
Put into clear cold water
And imagine this water
Slowly heated up
This crayfish will stay motionless
Until he's cooked to death
Same happens to humanity
The first verse of Project Pitchfork's song "Omega Alpha" confronts the issue of a child being born into darkness and living in a place where it is accused of failure, and where everything that it does is wrong. The second verse takes it a step further and depicts this child growing up in a world that ignores its positive behavior and always focuses on the negative. This picture of a child growing up in harsh circumstances is representative of how humanity as a whole reacts to positivity and negativity. The song suggests that if someone were to appear on the scene and give love and self-esteem to the child, then the child would be able to move beyond its dark past and move forward in its life with a conscience and trust. The refrain "Alpha Omega" is symbolic of the beginning and end of a cycle, where everything that is born inevitably dies, but eventually gives birth to new life. This cycle can be extended to humanity as well, where although negativity exists, it is possible for humanity to be reborn into something more positive.
The third verse speaks to the power of small actions, where tiny acts can have significant effects. This point is two-fold: small negative actions can lead to disastrous consequences, but equally, small positive actions can be the ones that change the world. To illustrate this concept, the song imagines a crayfish thrown into boiling water—it immediately tries to escape. Contrastingly, if it were put in clear, cold water that was slowly heated up, the crayfish would stay motionless until it was cooked to death. This analogy is extended to humanity, where our lack of noticing small negative actions and lack of positive influences can lead to overwhelming darkness that is difficult to escape. The song concludes on an optimistic note, where the power to change lies within our own hands through small positive actions.
Line by Line Meaning
Imagine a child
Picture a young human being
Living in a dark place
Residing in a joyless, gloomy environment
Imagine a child
Envision a young human being
Being accused of being a failure
Receiving negative criticism and judgment for not succeeding
Nothing is right
Nothing is correct or satisfactory
Everything is wrong
Everything is incorrect or unsatisfactory
Imagine this child
Growing up in a world
Which pays no attention
To its positive behavior
Always noticing
The bad things
Consider this child maturing in a society that disregards its positive conduct and always focuses on the negative aspects
Imagine a person
Appearing on this scene
Giving love, giving love
Giving back its selfesteem
This child will turn away
From its hopeless past
And continue its life
In conscience and trust
Visualize someone entering the scene and showing kindness and support, enabling the child to move beyond a distressing past and take control of their life with awareness and confidence
The same could be with humanity
Same could be with humanity
This human experience can be applied to all of humankind
Alhpa Omega
Alpha and Omega
The beginning and the end
Small things are big
Huge things are small
Tiny acts have huge effects
Everything counts
Nothing's lost
Small deeds are significant, extensive affairs can sometimes be minimal, and minor actions have notable results. Each action is valuable and essential, and nothing is meaningless.
Imagine a crayfish
Thrown into boiled water
It will try to escape
As fast as it can
Imagine a crustacean abruptly placed into boiling water, it will do everything it can to flee
But imagine this crayfish
Put into clear cold water
And imagine this water
Slowly heated up
This crayfish will stay motionless
Until he's cooked to death
Same happens to humanity
In contrast, suppose the crustacean is introduced to cold, transparent water and gradually warmed. In that case, it will remain motionless until it expires, similar to how humans may fail to respond to gradual transformations until it's too late.
Contributed by Isaac L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.