Music can hurt. Can strike new wounds and tear up old ones. No one is more aware of this than Simone 'Hellvis' Salvatori. His feverish music is a diary of his failures and triumphs, a deep scar running through his work. He finds pleasure in the pain it causes him, sheds tears for the lust it evokes in him. Like an Italian JOHNNY CASH, he clads his life in intimate ballads of becoming and withering, of sex and death. SPIRITUAL FRONT are the Folk Noir crossbreed of ENNIO MORRICONE and NICK CAVE – suicide pop from a decadent otherworld.
Where secret passions are whispered into darkness, where dreaming and waking, intoxication and hangover dance closely, "Open Wounds" feels at home: morbid Mafia folklore for hedonistic self-destructors, murder ballads for decadent lotus-eaters. Like a heavy red wine, SPIRITUAL FRONT's music gets better and better over the years – ever more exhilarating, ever more effective. As if Simone Salvatori had to reach a certain age to understand his music properly. As if he had to accept that living means suffering. Now, the erotic enchantment of his masterpiece "Armageddon Gigolo" is back. On "Open Wounds", it mates with delicate prowess and baffling arrangements that would invoke envy in every Mafia orchestra.
Sacred profoundness turns to sweaty sheets when Simone Salvatori sings for his soul, when he trembles, hope, loves, suffers, and lives. The machismo and his guitar, joined by the orchestra - "Open Wounds" is the epitome of suicide pop. Sexy to the brim, sensual even in the face of certain death, full of whipping urgency.
To this, the bonus CD comes as a sharply acentuated contrast, uniting instrumentals, alternate versions and stunning reworks: a calm and very moody view into the artistic life of this abyssic gigolo. This second album is like the cuddling after the all-consuming act of love that is "Open Wounds" - and SPIRITUAL FRONT is the lover that disappears before dawn. Only a dream? The wounds tell a different story.
Comes as a double CD in book format (approximately 14x21cm), hardback with elaborate thread stitching and a 40-page extra booklet, printed in precious artprint on high quality paper. Strictly limited to 2000 copies.
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