Track By Tracks: STEEL CAGE - Syndrome (2022)

Introduction:

Syndrome is a concept album about a vision of the near future, ... which perhaps is at least partly already a reality.

This album is about the total dependence on electronic devices and social media which has already determined, especially in the new generations, a partial transfer of intelligence, sociability and culture. That is: of human nature.

Recent studies have hypothesized that at this rate in just one decade the ability of the average population to express themselves in words will drastically reduce. ... And this is only the beginning of the involution that awaits us. What is really in danger is our own humanity.

The sensory deprivation of the next evolutions of virtual reality will lead many to abandon themselves and totally lose themselves in a no longer science fiction "Matrix" (just to give a cinematic example), where reality and imagination, authentic and artificial, are merged continuously.

"Syndrome" uses the metaphor of demonic possession and the war against possessed machines, in order to expose these critical issues and propose a way of salvation thanks to faith in logic, reason, culture and pure feelings, such as human piety.

The Beginning is as follows:

If we pushed ourselves to create artificial intelligence capable of even feeling emotions, would we perhaps have given the answer to the question: "Does the soul exist"? The thrill of having reached such a milestone would free our natural tendency to pride and the answer would undoubtedly be: "Yes, and we created it!"

Machines equipped with "souls" could therefore make us gods, ... but at what price? What if this first artificial intelligence were too immature and lacking in the solidity of reason, and were easy prey to demonic possessions?

The songs

RED DETONIN 'PYRE is the track that opens the album and talks about the unheard voices, the struggle of those who warned about the dangers of risky choices of humanity and remained unheard. But closing your eyes or covering your ears can only worsen the problem because everything has consequences, even ignorance.

WELCOME OBSCURITAS shows how the epidemic, the punishment for human pride, has begun .... and the darkness now surrounds everything, throwing those who begin to realize what is happening in the deepest despair.

IN-STATIC MIND tells of how the man/machine mix will be increasingly pushed and will help us to overcome the limits of our humanity. But what if Artificial Intelligence ended up acting as a bridge and "transmitted" the demonic possession for a ... "leap of species"? In this song, we try to imagine what happens in the human mind during this techno-contagion and the desperate struggle of a young woman who tries to resist the invasion of her soul.

TRUSTING HYSTERIA tells how the belated awareness of this epidemic and its unstoppable dimensions, inevitably, lead to mass hysteria.

HUMANITY THRESHOLD is a more philosophical passage. In fact, we ask ourselves the question: what does "humanity" mean, in this reality of demon-machine-man contagion?

Perhaps this is the key to salvation: rediscovering what makes and distinguishes us as "human" in this epidemic.

It is therefore now clear that Reason is the only way for salvation. It has not disappeared but it has moved. As for Ludovico Ariosto's “Astolfo” (from the poem “Orlando Furioso”), a trip is needed, in order to recover it. A metaphysical journey towards SATURN'S MOON.

REVENGE (of Sanity) is deliberately contrasting. The search for Reason is followed by the explosion of a feeling such as revenge. However, it is a "rite" of purification to achieve health and thus regain freedom. The text tells of how, while some humans are unable to escape or resist possession, others begin to free themselves and, as typical of our human nature, to react. ... and so begins the revenge of sanity!

Free people organize themselves and set up a Resistance. The fight is very hard and the enemy is overwhelming. It is our FINAL RESISTANCE.

BLACKEST PRAY explains how definitive liberation is possible. But only through a collective path of atonement and struggle. Free humans do this through prayer. ... A prayer, the darkest prayer of all humanity, because it asks for punishment and not salvation.

The name of the operation is CODE: 666.

The chorus of unanimous prayer is then joined in a great "final techno-exorcism", definitively freeing all artificial and human intelligences from the control of demons.