ST. MICHAEL FRONT release video single
‘Knochen & Blut’ taken from new album
“Schuld & Sühne”
When negative childhood experiences leave the soul scarred, some angry feelings remain even in adult live and may result in strong words or evoke black-and-white images in the head akin to an old crime thriller. The second singlefrom ST. MICHAEL FRONT‘s sophomore full-length “Schuld & Sühne” (“Crime and Punishment”) is loosely based on such memories that have been turned into this song’s bold title ‘Knochen & Blut’ (“bones and blood”), which has been visually cast into a video-clip.
The Hamburgian “Chanson Noire” duo formed by guitarist Bruder Matthias and singer Bruder Sascha will release “Schuld & Sühne” on Friday, 13th of May.
ST. MICHAEL FRONT comment: “Every one of us will have felt the need to take revenge on somebody that has done us serious wrong or hurt us gravely at least once in our lives”, explains Bruder Sascha. “I vividly recall terrifying incidents from my childhood, when evil kids on wheelie bikes were mercilessly chasing me across an adventure playground. Our song ‘Knochen & Blut’ is also born out of pure nostalgia. The accompanying video-clip has therefore been conceived as an gently ironic homage to those revenge flicks from the 70s and 80s.”
Tracklist
1. Knochen & Blut
2. Ende der Zeit
3. So weit nach draußen
4. 1000 Namen
5. Dunkelheit
6. Schwarzer Engel
7. Niemand
8. Keine Helden
9. Wir sehen uns wieder
Madness reigns where ST. MICHAEL FRONT tread: The duo from Hamburg, Germany does not give a damn either about artistic boundaries or musical taboos, but happily combines chanson and Schlager, neofolk, pop, and soundtrack with audible relish. On their second album entitled “Schuld & Sühne” (“Crime & Punishment”), which for the first time is written entirely in their mother-tongue, the two Northern Germans alchemically distil campfire romance, wanderlust, greed and love, melancholy, a thirst for revenge, and anger of Old Testament proportions into pure gold.
“Schuld & Sühne” opens with the lyrical sledgehammer ‘Knochen und Blut’ (“Bone and Blood”), an anthemic song that reveals the basic musical formular of the duo: On the solid foundation of Brother Matthias’ rhythmic guitar play thrones the unmistakable voice of charismatic singer Brother Sascha. His narrative style subtly reveals his background as an actor both in theatre and in German TV productions. Underneath this sonic construct operates an on-point percussion with drums and timpani, while for example xylophone and a Morricone memorial trumpet add sparkling instrumental highlights. The hard opening track is followed by the quite different ‘Ende der Zeit’ (“End of Time”), a melancholic retrospective set in future times. In another cunning musical twist, ST. MICHAEL FRONT continue with ‘So weit nach draußen’ (“So Far Out”), which makes the eternal wanderlust of their harbour city palpable. Even these first three songs outline the enormous emotional range of emotions on the second album of the Hamburgians.
ST. MICHAEL FRONT got off to a flying start with their first album, ‘End of Ahriman’, even though the duo never stuck to any “rules”. Having grown out of many years of friendship and studying at the same art academy gave the two musicians the confidence to ignore music industry’s templates. They for example recklessly combined German Honolulu-Schlager with Dark Pop, which they somehow managed to fit together seamlessly against all odds. The result catapulted their song ‘Once’ to the top of the charts of German station RADIOEINS for 6 long weeks and put the duo into the focus of a wide range of media outlets from newspapers to podcasts.
The enthusiastically received debut album opened many doors for ST. MICHAEL FRONT. This included gladly-accepted invitations to perform at the Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig and the alpine cult event House of the Holy in Austria. The band itself characterised ‘End of Ahriman’ as a mix of dark folk, OLIVER ONIONS, THE WHO, and RICHARD WAGNER. Their jaw-dropping sound experiments on the debut full-length were accompanied by tongue-in-cheek English language lyrics. Their preoccupation with esoteric themes that they ironically deconstructed sure hit the zeitgeist. In the meantime, the Hamburgians have decided to switch to their mother tongue in order to write even deeper and more intricate and multi-layered lyrics that dissect the everyday madness of a world gone increasingly crazy with sharp precision.
With “Schuld & Sühne”, ST. MICHAEL FRONT unleash a personal soundtrack to society’s mental apocalypse of today. Sometimes acidic, sometimes wonderfully schmaltzy, but always straight to the point, this album will find its way – wherever it will land on the shelves tagged as “chanson noire”, “German neo schlager” or with any other style designation.
Release date: Friday the 13th of May 2022
Line-up
Bruder Sascha – vocals
Bruder Matthias – guitars
Guest musicians
Jonas Rüggenberg – bass, keyboards
Tom Juhnke – bass
Matthew Swinton – bass
Till van Daalen – keyboards
Boldi – flugelhorn, trumpet
Stephan Krause – percussion
Style: Apyocalypso Schlager
Sound engineering and mixing by Jonas Rüggeberg
Mastering by Gavin Weiss
Produced by ST.MICHAEL FRONT
Artwork and layout by ST.MICHAEL FRONT & Irrwisch Artdesign
Link
www.facebook.com/stmichaelfront
Pre-sale link: http://lnk.spkr.media/st-michael-front-schuld-suehne
Available formats
“Schuld & Sühne” is available as gatefold 180g black vinyl and on Digipak CD.
