What a surprisingly wonderful release! The Divine trilogy is quite a departure for TD. It may have a hard time finding the right audience. I'm a longtime TD fan, who, like everyone, finds comfort in the Virgin years. However, I also like a lot of the newer releases. (Perhaps oddly, I must also admit to liking the vocal version of Tyger.)I was a bit skeptical, and more than a bit worried at first. This isn't just operatic, this is opera! Thankfully, I like opera! However, there may not too much overlap between the world's TD fans and opera fans, so this definitely isn't for everyone. That said, I think it will exceed your expectations.TD's Divine triology (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso) is kind of like Tyger. This time taking Dante's famous poem/story and wrapping it in TD-style music. Quite a few songs have vocals. Unlike Tyger, many of the vocals are operatic. There are some Tyger-like half-spoken lyrics as well, but only on a couple of tracks. There is a mix of languages presented. I have only skimmed through Inferno and Paradiso, and neither grabbed me. But Purgatorio CD1 instantly struck a chord with me.The songs here are an interesting mix of Jerome-styled Dream Mix-esque upbeat dancey rhythms, neo-classical opera, and strange fusion of the two. The female opera vocals will probably be the make-or-break for most people. Even though TD opera sounded quite odd to me at first, I've come to really like it. If you simply can't handle opera, then you may want to skip these albums.The production is quite good. Most of the Jerome-influenced tracks have superb production. The rest are quite good too, though the vocal recordings sometimes reach the limits of the mic and distort slightly, or sound a bit off. It doesn't detract too much, but it's a bit of a shame all the same.My favorites by far are CD1 track 1,2,3. The driving sequence in 2 is classic TD. The fairytale melody and emotive bass guitar on 3 expertly (and surprisingly) complement the opera aria. The slower Edgar chord-laden tracks, similar to other modern TD CDs I often find tedious, are quite interesting here: they aren't as sparse and seem to have much more thought and emotion behind them. Also noteworthy are the frenetic track 5, the auto-tuned 7, and the catchy note progression of 8. For some reason, CD2 doesn't grab me at all (yet?).Purgatorio is by far my favorite of the three albums. The other two seem to lack something. However, I haven't listened to the others nearly as much, so perhaps they will grow now that I have found appreciation for Purgatorio.This is the first TD CD in a very long time that found regular repeat play dozens of times in the first week of ownership; and keeps me coming back for more.

What a wonderful review, I've seen so many negative reviews by old time TD fans for this album, but they fail to see that this album is the second part of Dante Alighieri's "La Divina Commedia" -- and as such, the work needs to meet the criteria of "artistic" more than "electronic" like most people expected. I love their early work too, and while it took a couple of years for me to appreciate what this album had to offer, it is now one of my favorites. So wonderfully put together, while a couple of the songs are not their best most of the others make up for the minor flaws the ones I am thinking of. My all time favorite TD song is from that album "Till The End of Silence" which I should mention; the previous track "Soulgate" serves as a "gate" into it and accessorizes it beautifully.