Souls of Diotima have released Arcade, their fifth album, through their own Diotima Records, and it is not the band they were.
The move is from power metal to modern metalcore, and the band say it plainly rather than letting anyone discover it. Breakdowns and down tuned riffs carry the record, with electronic arpeggiators, analogue oscillators and eighties synth retrowave laid over them. The title is the joke: neon arcade light over lyrics that are anything but bright.
Cage is the fourth single and the track they chose to lead with. It runs on two voices working against each other, Fabio Puddu screaming through the verses and Claudia Barsi singing the choruses, and the subject is the feeling of being locked inside your own head.
“We had one objective, to evolve and to show who we are today, without being afraid to take the risk,” the band say of it. Run Away, Revenge and Senza Rancore came out first.
Eleven tracks, digital only for now. Giorgio Pinna plays drums and Manuel Dettori bass.