DIMI KAYE - Soulkiller

Written by C Z A R I N A with Excerpts from Dimi Kaye’s Press Release

"Welcome, fool. You have come of your own free will to the appointed place. The game is over.

Only fools enter Nightmare City, a virtual hub in the depths of the Net to discover the most precious commodity of our bleak future: Information.

Explore, you never know what you'll find behind dark alleys but be careful. As in real life, this is a world made by others, with their rules and biases. Their viruses may hunt you down like rabid dogs, the data fortresses you're building might crash on you in an instant, you might lose more than what you bargained for when you deal with the devil in the machine.

If your crime is that of curiosity though, by all means, enter. After all, "fool" is another word for the ‘hero’.”

-Soulkiller

Dark synth and cyberpunk are often drawn from the machine-like atmospheric and cinematic sound designs in post-apocalyptic, tech noir films and video games about machines taking over society and enslaving humanity. The genres easily offer themselves to conceptual narratives done in sound as we have seen in several bodies of dark synth projects - one recently in Franz by Elay Arson, a record about a monstrous Frankenstein-esque machine that had gone rogue at the Tesla plant. Now, Greece-based synth and guitar hero Dimi Kaye unveils his cyberpunk and dark synth concept record, Soulkiller. The concept of the record was inspired by the short essay The Conscience of a Hacker, which Dimi first heard being recited in the movie Hackers. The title tracks were also inspired by the CD Project video game Cyberpunk 2077. Each of the 6 tracks blend mid tempo drums, dark basslines, sometimes dissonant rhythm guitars and a touch of slightly odd time rhythms.

Originally written as an exercise for Dimi’s YouTube channel, the tracks in Soulkiller were conceptualized while the hype for Cyberpunk 2077 was still at its peak. Out of his own reverie for dark and retro futuristic art, Dimi took inspiration for the track titles from the video game: Dark Alley, Nightmare City, R.A.B.B.I.D.S., DataKrash, The Fool, Soulkiller. But it was the movie Hackers that helped him tie the tracks together into a fully-fleshed out record, building the story around the “Hacker Manifesto,” which he read after rewatching the film.

Soulkiller opens with Dark Alley, a very pensive mid-tempo, arpeggiated slow-burn intro track with dark monk-like drone vocals in the backdrop while catchy and melodic sine bells playfully entrance and hover over. The breakdown with the chime bell sequence over the bass attack between the beautifully crafted sonic snare and kick actually invokes a bit of the legendary Nobuo Uematsu’s work in Final Fantasy VII RPG game - the same unsettling, pensive treatment in the game’s underground and Shinra Corporation scenes.

Nightmare City enters and this track and the following track give hint at Dimi’s irrefutable reputation as a master composer of his own right. Nightmare City starts off laid back with a mid-tempo back beat, then builds with distorted rhythm guitars with beautifully dispersed staccato synths before the breakdown. It opens into a very emotional guitar lead that only Dimi knows how to emotively perform into a lamentful swan song and it continues on its subdued nature, setting the stage for the next track. If one listens in closely this track actually carries a very symphonic and orchestral writing, which is something normally seen in metal - which doesn’t come as a surprise with Dimi’s metal background.

The tempo picks up with R.A.B.B.I.D.S. which invokes the classic video game boss battle vibes. Over the monk-like drone pads and hyper rhythm section, the track pushes through, guided with Dimi’s downright badass speedy rhythm guitars. It gives brief breaks into double metal kicks and then elevates into Dimi’s epic and sublime signature guitar shreds that every metal lover could really sink their teeth into.

The video game vibes continue on in DataKrash. Slower in tempo, the track dredges listeners into dark ominous terrains, ushered by Dimi’s fantastic speedy rhythmic guitars. Crystalline and shimmery arpeggiated toplines hover in and out of the track in support of the overall moodier, subdued bass undercurrents, leading into a menacing odd-metered drum, bass and synth hook resolve.

The Fool enters with a sampled quote by the late great Sir Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle on the movie The Wickerman (1973), another one of Dimi’s all time favourite films. Brassy synths exalt over the foreboding bass arp, harkening Dimi’s fellow esteemed Greek, the legendary Vangelis’ early works, sprinkled with tantric arpeggiated synth leads. Similar to Dark Alley, The Fool starts pensive and brooding right before breaking into another one of Sir Christopher Lee’s sampled quote. Then the track escalates into up-tempo rhythm and dynamics with some jazzy arpeggiated synth leads that immediately grow into earworms.

Dimi definitely saved his very best for last in the album’s title track, Soulkiller. The track savoringly features all of Dimi’s guitar prowess that earned him his title as master guitarist. Dimi savagely slays through in multi-toned, dynamic lead riffs. The track is tastefully pared down in arrangements with the steady back-beats and sustained long bass notes. But it paves way and milks Dimi’s speedy guitar heroics which delightfully move into polyrhythmic odd meters at times. It truly is a great marvel to see someone make their guitar sing like a majestic Valkyrie in opera, and Dimi definitely delivers in this one.

From start to finish, Soulkiller remains confidently strong, unbothered, unhurried, and supremely solid. It is distinctively relaxed and focuses more on the sonic terrains that invoke the video game treatments this record was inspired by. The most thrilling aspect is that it tastefully showcases Dimi’s guitar and synth mastery in nonchalance without being ostentatious, exemplifying a very centered and grounded approach between emotional delivery and musical bravado that focuses on the experience - a mark of ascended mastery.

Also, for those who are fans of the game and the Netflix series, make sure to check out Dimi Kaye’s fantastic synthwave cover of Toss A Coin To Your Witcher.

Soulkiller is now available on Bandcamp.
Follow Dimi Kaye here.