BABEL

Soul Secret are an Italian progressive metal band based in Naples who released their debut album "Flowing Portraits" back in 2008, with Mark Basile (DGM) as guest singer. This is the only album of theirs I had heard prior to this, and remember thinking it was an incredibly strong debut. Obviously, I wasn't the only one as it led to them playing with the likes of Pendragon, Vanden Plas and Subsignal. They have been through a few line-up changes since then, and are now back with their fourth album, a concept telling the story of Sam and Adriel who are sent in space to find God, helped by logOS, an on-board computer providing cutting-edge technology to the mission. When they finally find the City Of Gods, they find it empty...

This album is full of strong songs, but I found the concept and spoken links were getting in the way of my enjoyment of the music, and after the first few plays it was getting harder and more difficult to get into the music. That is a real shame, as there are some strong performances on here. The vocals are superb, and there are some djent influences in the music at times, which is certainly a departure from the norm in terms of progressive rock. Possibly it is necessary to see the full release, and I only have a digital download to gauge my opinion on, but for me this just doesn't have the impact and power of the debut, and I expect bands to keep improving, not taking a retrograde step, which is a real shame.

It is light, pleasant, melodic progressive rock with some interesting influences, but not challenging or interesting enough for me to maintain my focus throughout, and the additional elements that have been put in that link that album are superfluous and over the top (although even I must smile when the code word is "Pendragon

One might expect a fully fledged space rock album here when considering the beautiful album cover. Anyhow, at least the story behind offers the opportunity to participate at an intergalactic mission in a far distant future. Ambitiously sent away to find none other than God, two astronauts, Sam and Adriel, are accompanied by logOS. A special board computer, absolutely required for having a chance to accomplish the trip. You want to know how it ends? Wait a little. Initially, due to the first speech sample within Prologue, Sam seems to be seriously frustrated. And later on there is some mysterious misunderstanding occuring when contacting the homebase.

So I can't get rid of the impression that they don't take this too seriously overall. At least when it comes to religious respectively spiritual belief. You may correct me. Anyway, meanwhile it's their fourth album. And the band is from Italy, important to know. But SOUL SECRET are contrasting from the vast amount of groups related to the RPI scene. Following to the overture they immediately and literally will prove for what they are standing for musically. Continuing with the fantastic What We're All About this belongs to the finest I could listen to this year. Tricky execution, highly melodic, acoustic guitars are morphing into heavy riffs and vice versa, variating dynamics, nice piano licks. Great variety regarding every instrument. Grandezza!

Singer Lino Di Pietrantonio acts strong too, comes close to James LaBrie hereby, partially, but not exclusively. And then: 'Our hopes are outcasts at a dead-end lane'. After all they eventually are Entering The City Of God, but surprisingly he's missing. Later on The Cuckoo's Nest comes with the summary: 'God is dead, like our dreams. Human kind is walking with no guiding light'. Which for me personally leads into the final conclusion: no other choice, we have to solve all problems on our own. Mankind is going to destroy the world, but competent enough to uphold and improve in the same way. It depends what will win through! The aforementioned song is spiked with fine synth activity and belongs to my favourite tunes. God is Love - the band finally designs a temporary happy end somehow, when Sam and Adriel learn to love each other.

Decorated with an interesting, maybe provoking, lyrical concept this is a stunning new SOUL SECRET album, completely meets my taste. Besides some, probably intended, references to (early) Dream Theater I would also name Dropshard and Aisles as some stylistical references, so that you may have a rough clue what you are going to observe. Besides this comparisons the band has reached for an unique widespread approach though, which includes prog metal, djent, latin and jazz vibes as well as different facets deriving from art rock and AOR territories. 4.5 stars, strong contender for a masterpiece status.