Dark cabaret artist Aurelio Voltaire leaves the vampires, zombies and murder ballads behind for a heart-wrenching collection of songs about love gained and love lost. His eleventh studio album (and first Projekt release in a decade) sees Voltaire crafting his most mature and passionate release to date.

Throughout his 20-year career Voltaire has danced on the dark side with a sardonic smile, penning such tunes as “Zombie Prostitute” “Cannibal Buffet” and “Vampire Club.” He’s best known for “When You’re Evil” (from 1999’s debut The Devil’s Bris), a jaunty celebration of naughtiness befitting a Disney villain (as evidenced by the scores of Disney villain fan videos on youTube set to the song.) Also a classic track, “Brains!” (from 2002’s Boo Hoo) recounts an evil meteor hungry for human brains and was featured on the Cartoon Network show The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.

With a reputation for macabre, tongue-in-cheek skewering of everything from religion to the Goth scene to Star Trek and Star Wars, Voltaire has his serious side, too. Every once in a while someone comes along and breaks his heart, and the result is an album of gut-wrenching songs. His 2002 outing, Boo Hoo, was described by Projekt as “a breakup record for lonely hearts with an ax to grind.” Well, it’s happened again! Heart~Shaped Wound goes past an 8.9 on the heartbreak scale. The result of a short but tumultuous three-month relationship – the first after his divorce in 2013 – Voltaire found himself writing new songs that were earnest, brimming with anguish, regret and yearning.
 
Known for releasing an album a year, Aurelio Voltaire spent three years crafting Heart~Shaped Wound in between his hectic touring schedule. Defying classification, the album drifts seamlessly from Goth rock to folk, from saxophone-fueled torch songs to guitar driven indie-rock. There’s even an intense heavy metal ballad, “Leaves in the Stream,” a duet sung with Arch Enemy frontwoman Alissa White-Gluz. 

Aurelio Voltaire returns to Projekt, bringing with him 20 years of genre-defying musical storytelling. Often sarcastic, sometimes serious, always uniquely… Voltaire.

Releaserd late August 2017 on Projekt Records.

Track Listing:
1 The Projectionist
2 Human Nature
3 Leaves in the Stream
4 Butterfly
5 In Disguise
6 The Ones Who’ve Hurt You
7 Hallelujah
8 The Necropolis of Former Lovers
9 The Folly of Love
10 A Romantic Guy
11 The Necropolis of Former Lovers (Midnight in the Mausoleum Mix)