‘In questa stagione son florià nulla, La prossima macirà tutto, Verde, Contagio, Raccolto putrido, Gli animali sotto un cielo velenoso e statico’ (Raccolto Putrido) / ‘This season, nothing will bloom, In the next, all will rot, Green, Contagion, Putrid Harvest, The animals beneath a sky, poisoned and still’ (Putrid Harvest)

New Yorks’s Mirage return with their second full-length, following up 2024’s Legato Alla Rovina (Bound To Ruin) and their 2022 debut 7-inch, Immagini Postume (Posthumous Images).  It sees the band continue to forge their savage reimagining of fiercely agitated 1980s’ Italian hardcore, one that is dexterously braided through with darkly discordant, manically off-kilter flahes of post-punk inclined melodicism and barbarously psychedelic smears.

The base delivery is as frantically writhing as ever.  Yet, the band continue to give space for a crystalline melancholy to unfurl – including two palate cleansing interludes – and to bring a burly groove to bear as and when the occasion demands.  Meanwhile, the Italian vocals segue from rasping snarls to ominously semi-spoken tirades as they confront the seemingly remorseless cycle of oligarchical exploitation, climatic catastrophe, and militarised violence.

The sinewy convulsions of Sole Spento (Extinguished Sun). The choppily assertive Portatore Dellultimo Dono (Bearer Of The Last Gift).  The jaggedly melodic Sono Un Abominio (I Am An Abomination).  The metallic tinged, dissonance flecked muscularity of Raccolto Putrido (Putrid Harvest).  The highlights slam home with an unflinching, satisfyingly serpentine regularity.