‘La nostra casa é in fiamme, il calore mi spacca le labra, mi spacca la facia, mi abbandono tra le tue braccia, tra le macerie e i resti sparsi di ciò che credevamo di avere messo in salvo, e avevamo lasciato indietro’ (Le Ombre Intorno) ‘Our house is on fire, the heat splits my lips, it splits my face.  I abandon myself between your arms, among the rubble and the scattered remnants of what we believed we saved, and we left behind instead’ (The Shadows Around)

Turin’s Sacrofuoco comprise the same four members as their previous iteration, One Dying Wish, that was active from 2017 to 2022.  The band felt that they had outgrown their original form both musically and personally, and while both bands share the same kernel of emotional hardcore inspiration, it is vividly clear that a newfound confidence and assurance permeates their music.

Anni Luce (Light Years) is their statement of renewed intent and its seven tracks split between four visceral eruptions and three rather more expansive explorations.  Throughout, the band prove skilfully adept at marrying a surging, sinuous aggression with passages of haunting beauty.  They flow between the two with an inventive, organic fluidity, most dramatically, perhaps, on Corpi Celesti (Heavenly Bodies) and Una Sottile Linea (A Thin Line).

Meanwhile, harsh Italian vocals are layered with more melodic backing and intertwined with powerfully effective spoken word interjections.  The lyrics have a poetically allusive quality and look to explore themes around how our lives are becoming increasingly fractured by political opportunism and invasive technology, and how the resultant barriers frequently evolve as cages that sacrifice more than they protect.