Soul Secret is an Italian

progressive metal Progressive metal (sometimes shortened to prog metal) is a broad fusion music genre melding heavy metal and progressive rock, combining the loud "aggression" and amplified guitar-driven sound of the former with the more experimental, cerebral ...

band that formed in

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. They started as a cover band but as the years passed they started thinking about writing some original material. Thus they wrote a song called First Creature in 2006. The band decided to play live this song and after a good feedback they continued the writing process giving birth to an entire album titled Flowing Portraits. In 2007 the band decided to record the material at Orange Bug Studios. Just before entering the studios to record vocals, Michele Serpico had colitis and was unable to sing for a long time. In the studios the band got in touch with Mark Basile ( DGM), who accepted to sing all the album as a guest, and with Davide Guidone. After listening the album he decided to join the project, becoming the band's manager. With him on board, the band was able to sign in 2008 under the American label ProgRock Records. In 2009 Michele Serpico felt better and he was able to sing in a gig during the Baltic Prog Fest in July but after that great experience he decided to leave Soul Secret definitively to let them search a stable singer, on stage and in studio. The band then started writing new material and planned to record drums at Musa Muta Studio during February 2010. The band contacted

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) who accepted to sing on their critically acclaimed suite Aftermath as a guest. Later they met Claudio Casaburi, their current bass player. With him the material written until that was radically changed, in order to have an album composed by the brand new Soul Secret lineup. The band then recorded bass, guitars and keyboards in their own studios. The album, later called Closer To Daylight, was mixed and mastered by Markus Teske. In 2013 the band decided to change singer and welcomed Lino Di Pietrantonio (vocals) on board to write and record the third album and perform live. The band's third album, titled 4 and their first concept, was published in April 2015. Their next album, another original concept called BABEL, was released on July 28 2017and previewed at Night Of The Prog on July 14, 2017, with the band opening the show to Mike Portnoy’s Shattered Fortress (also featuring members of Haken and Neal Morse band) and later at the first edition of the Ready For Prog? Festival (formerly Very Prog Festival) with

Persefone Persefone is an Andorran progressive death metal band formed in October 2001.Official Persefone website, http://www.persefone.com The band's name is derived from Persephone, a figure in Greek Mythology. Overview Persefone was founded in ...

and Sons Of Apollo. The band announced in 2018 Francesco Cavezza as the new guitar player and the band started writing new material. The dutch label Layered Reality Productions signed the band and planned to publish the band’s fifth album around May 2020. After the

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spread all around the world, the band decided to delay the album release and to publish a single written during the quarantine called Shine Again exclusively on

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

with all proceeds donated to charity. The band fifth album Blue Light Cage has been released worldwide on October 23, 2020 featuring

Derek Sherinian Derek Sherinian (born August 25, 1966) is an American keyboardist who has toured and recorded for Alice Cooper, Billy Idol, and Joe Bonamassa, among others. He was also a member of Dream Theater from 1994 to 1999, is the founder of Planet X an ...

and Marek Arnold.

Reception

Musicwaves.fr described ''Flowing Portraits'' as "a pivotal album" even if just their debut album, while Dprp.net wrote that the highlight of the album is the last song, the epic called Tears Of Kalliroe, which features an amazing orchestral overture, followed by sheer brilliant prog metal passages. ''Closer To Daylight'', the band's second album, passed with flying colours and scored the album 5 out of 5 on Allaroundmetal.com. Of the band's third album, a concept album titled ''4'', Progmetalzone.com wrote that the album is full of ambitious, technically accomplished and poignant material that showcases the strength of each and every single musician in the band, as well as the band's cohesiveness as a unit, as they have finally found a stable line-up after a few past changes. About BABEL, Progarchives wrote that it was worth 4.5 stars and a strong contender for a masterpiece status. The latest album Blue Light Cage gathered even more positive reviews, including "this fifth album is their best effort so far", "this is an album from another category" and "Opening Sequence is probably the best opening sequence I have heard in the past 23 years, ever since ''Fire Blossom'' by aforementioned Vanden Plas".

Band members

; Current members * Claudio Casaburi – bass (2010–present) * Francesco Cavezza - guitars (2018–present) * Luca Di Gennaro – keyboards (2008–present) * Lino Di Pietrantonio – vocals (2013–present) * Antonio Mocerino – drums (2008–present) ; Former members * Antonio Vittozzi – guitars (2008–2017) * Michele Serpico – vocals (2008–2009) * Fabio Manda – vocals (2010–2013) * Lucio Grilli – bass (2008–2010) ; Guests * Mark Basile - vocals on the entire album "Flowing Portraits" (2008) * Anna Assentato - vocals on the song "If" *

- vocals on the song "Aftermath" (2011) *

Marco Sfogli Marco Sfogli (born April 4, 1980) is an Italian heavy metal and rock guitarist. He's the guitar player for James LaBrie, PFM and Icefish. He appeared on several albums. History Born in 1980, his first attempt with music came in 1984 when he p ...

- guitar solo on the song "River's Edge" (2011) *

- keyboard solos on the song "The Ghost Syndicate" (2020) * Marek Arnold - sax solos on the song "Blue Light Cage" (2020)

Timeline

TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:350 PlotArea = width:650 height:240 bottom:70 left:20 Legend = top:50 orientation:vertical left:10 columns:3 columnwidth:250 Colors = id:canvas value:gray(0.95) id:grid1 value:gray(0.9) id:grid2 value:gray(0.8) id:bars value:rgb(0.96,0.96,0.6) id:bg value:white id:basso value:rgb(0.96,0.96,0.6) legend:bass id:tastiera value:rgb(0.5,0.5,1) legend:keyboards id:voce value:rgb(1,0.6,0.6) legend:vocals id:batteria value:rgb(0,1,0) legend:drums id:chitarra value:rgb(0.75,0.75,1) legend:guitars BackgroundColors = canvas:bg Period = from:2008 till:2021 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:2008 gridcolor:grid1 BarData= barset:Bandmembers barset:basso barset:tastiera barset:voce barset:batteria barset:chitarra PlotData= # set defaults width:20 fontsize:m textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) color:bars barset:Bandmembers barset:basso color:basso from:2008 till:2010 text:"Lucio Grilli" from:2010 till:end text:"Claudio Casaburi" barset:tastiera color:tastiera from:2008 till:end text:"Luca Di Gennaro" barset:voce color:voce from:2008 till:2009 text:"Michele Serpico" from:2010 till:2013 text:"Fabio Manda" from:2013 till:end text:"Lino Di Pietrantonio" barset:batteria color:batteria from:2008 till:end text:"Antonio Mocerino" barset:chitarra color:chitarra from:2008 till:2018 text:"Antonio Vittozzi" from:2018 till:end text:"Francesco Cavezza"

* Mark Manning - Narrator * Andy Kowowski - Sam * Niabi Manning - Adriel * Dorsey Jackson - logOS

Production

* Alex Argento - mixing, mastering * Thomas Ewerhard - artwork

''Shine Again (single)'' (2020)

''Shine Again'', released on Layered Reality Productions, is a charity single written by the band during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, with all of its proceeds to be donated to the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level o ...

Tracks

# ''Shine Again'' - 05:51 - (music by Francesco Cavezza - lyrics by Francesco Cavezza)

Guests

* Tom de Wit - guest singer

Production

* Tom de Wit - mixing * Rich Gray (formerly Rich Hinks) - mastering * Claudio Casaburi - artwork

''Blue Light Cage'' (2020)

''Blue Light Cage'', released on Layered Reality Productions, is the band's fifth studio album, featuring

and Marek Arnold.{{Cite web, url=http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=70306, title=SOUL SECRET Blue Light Cage, website=www.progarchives.com, access-date=2020-11-10

Tracks

# ''Opening Sequence'' (instrumental) - 3:00 - (music by Casaburi, Di Gennaro) # ''The Ghost Syndicate'' - 5:26 - (Di Gennaro, Mocerino - lyrics by Di Gennaro) # ''A President's Speech'' - 6:00 - (Casaburi, Di Gennaro, Di Pietrantonio - Di Gennaro) # ''Switch On'' (instrumental) - 1:42 - (Casaburi) # ''Blue Light Cage'' - 4:50 - (Di Gennaro, Di Pietrantonio - Di Pietrantonio) # ''We'll Become Dust'' - 7:22 - (Casaburi, Cavezza, Di Gennaro, Di Pietrantonio, Mocerino - Mocerino) # ''Going Home'' - 5:45 - (Di Gennaro - Mocerino) # ''Jump Right In'' - 7:00 - (Casaburi, Di Gennaro, Di Pietrantonio - Di Gennaro, Di Pietrantonio) # ''Breathe and Recover'' - 13:00 - (Casaburi, Di Gennaro - Casaburi)

Guests

- keyboard solos on ''The Ghost Syndicate'' * Marek Arnold - sax solos on ''Blue Light Cage'' * Tom Gallagher - new-anchor on ''A President's Speech'' * Joe Prestia - spoken words on ''We'll Become Dust''

Production

* Virus Studio - mixing, mastering * Nello Dell'Omo - artwork * Copy editing - Jasmine Wang * Project supervision - Davide Guidone

References

External links

Official website
__FORCETOC__ Italian progressive metal musical groups Musical groups established in 2004