Diamante

t generally takes over a billion years for a diamond to form yet in just 21 years, Diamante has already begun to sparkle. With iridescent sapphire hair, a show-stopping voice, runway-ready fashion swagger, and an empowering message, the Boston-raised and Los Angeles-based Mexican-Italian-American sonic heroine brings a new (and blue) fire to rock and alternative music. The title track from her debut album Coming In Hot has already garnered over two million streams on YouTube, and she’s toured alongside some of the biggest acts in the business.

Then again, when you consider the fact that Diamante has been honing her craft since she was a child and proudly following in a tradition of legendary musicians such Joan Jett, Stevie Nicks and Debbie Harry, her trajectory makes perfect sense. A disciple of both P!nk and Guns N’ Roses, Diamante devoted every waking minute to honing a signature “classic rock sound with a modern alternative edge”. She recalls, “I started writing original music as a little kid. My family moved to Los Angeles when I was 13 and within a few years, I was inviting my friends to watch me perform on the Sunset Strip, so it feels like I’ve been doing this for a while.”

The singer got her big break when she did her first international tour alongside Flyleaf when she was 18 years old. Following subsequent tours supporting Whitesnake and Hinder, she spent the last two years solely focusing on Coming In Hot alongside famed producer Howard Benson (My Chemical Romance, Kelly Clarkson).

The result is a debut album that shows Diamante has a lifetime of experiences under her studded leather belt. “I knew this record would be my introduction to the world as an artist, so I felt like I needed to take my time and find out exactly what story I wanted to tell,” Diamante says of Coming In Hot, “Every day I went to the studio and collaborated with someone new, whether it was a producer or a songwriter. In the span of the 18 months, I feel like I grew so much as an artist and a songwriter from the experience.”

Throughout the process, she also had the aforementioned Benson at her side, someone she describes as the “guiding force” behind the album, and whose experience and vision helped shape the album into a musical tour de force. “Howard was the glue that connected all the dots together. He always looked at the bigger picture and how these songs will come together as a larger body of work. He was also the one who really pushed me to be vulnerable with my writing.”

That sentiment is dripping all over Coming In Hot, as evidenced from the searing, glam metal-inspired title track which seesaws between an arena-filling chant and a robust and raucous riff. At the center, Diamante confidently serves up the knockout refrain, “Whether you’re ready or not, I’m coming in hot!” However, the album also shows off her range, from angsty, groove-driven rockers like “Had Enough” and heartfelt ballads such as “I’m Sorry” and “Black Heart”, all of which collectively form a unified vision of who Diamante is.

Referencing anthemic songs such as “Fight Like A Girl” Diamante explains, “I'm finally letting out into the world what I feel. I'm telling people about my flaws, faults and insecurities. I'm human and have all these issues that I deal with, and know that so many people deal with them every day, too.” Diamante’s dedication and resilience lies at the core of Coming In Hot and when she sings “I am strong, I’ll show you, even when I’m black and blue” on the power-chord driven anthem “Bulletproof,” it’s clear that she’s digging deep to find words that capture her struggle.

However, in contrast to the arena-ready rockers there’s a song like “Lo Siento,” the Spanish version of “I’m Sorry”. After writing the original version, bi-linguel Diamante knew she had to share the song in Spanish too, which highlights the beauty if the language. Fans of heavier music can savor songs like “Sleepwalking” while classic rock fans can embrace “Kind Of Love,” but ultimately, what ties the album together is that it showcases all of the aspects of Diamante’s personality in a way that’s as fundamentally human as it is catchy.

Diamante has sacrificed a lot in order to make Coming In Hot a reality. While her peers were partying, she was locked in windowless recordings studios trying to craft this ambitious collection of songs. Now that it's completed, she wouldn't change the experience for anything. “Whenever I listened to this album, whether it was in my car or while I was running, I could only picture myself on stage performing, and I can’t wait for the world to hear it.”

Diamante will be spending the summer of 2019 co-headlining a June tour with New Year’s Day and then spending the rest of the summer with Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, Chevelle, and Dorothy touring ampitheaters all over the country.