Spiritual Front is the band around the flamboyant singer Simone Salvatori, whose music is sometimes described as ‘suicide pop’. Three cd’s were released so far by the Italian cult act, with the split album “Satyriasis” with Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio as the definitive highlight. Before this album Spiritual Front has released some limited vinyl singles, like this 5-track 10″.
A prominent role on this EP is assigned to Matt Howden. His wonderful violin work nicely colours the acoustic music, which is further created mostly by piano (and acoustic guitar. The vocals of Salvatori have greatly improved over the years, he sings on this record with a lot of bravado in his dark crooning style. Of course the familiar nihilist, decadent and romantic-erotic themes are present as usual.
The EP contains songs already known from Spiritual Front’s albums, like ‘Autopsy Of A Love’, ‘Soul Gambler’ and ‘We Could Fail Again’. But they are featured here in different, more minimal acoustic versions. “Nihilist” is a wonderful record with a nice warm and intimate mood. A special mention deserves the last piece ‘Ragged Bed’, a slow song with a kind of late-at-night Tom Waits-like desperate atmosphere.