Mirage

Mirage Legato Alla Rovina 12″

I reviewed MIRAGE’s demo, which was a good introduction but mostly made me wish to hear something more, bigger, refined. Here they are with an LP, released again by Roachleg. The record sounds big and hyper-energetic with enough nasty noise, and the music is hectic: guitars and drums racing with each other while certain riffs reach back and forth beyond power chords, using a lot of feedback, dumb-but-great melodies, and fingers walking on strings as drunk spiders. Loud, often spoken-sung agitation with a bucketful of despair to vary the vocals. They are able to mix the obvious Italian influences well with their own manic ideas. It sounds modern for sure, but the bleak modernity did not infect this record—it is balanced between an homage to a scene far away (both in time and distance) and a present-day hardcore rager. This record is fucking great!

• Reviewer Viktor Vargyai
• Label Roachleg
• Issue MRR #494 • July 2024

Mirage Immagini Postume cassette

MIRAGE is the “let’s pull out ten of the best early Italian hardcore records and try to do something similiar” band of the Roachleg roster—singing in Italian and recreating both the urgency and the bit post-punk (but with wilder guitar sounds) that are familiar from STINKY RATS or even WRETCHED. Yet the music is less chaotic, I guess due to the fact that MIRAGE is not reinventing hardcore locally as teenagers who are only getting familiar with the instruments. On the other hand, the band has a straightforward power that fills the demo with energy but lacks infantilism. Anger is dripping from each second and the song structures are varied enough to remain interesting, although with each listen the smoke clears, and while the core of their sound does not vanish, they do not grow out from the same circle as IDIOTA CIVILIZZATO and PSICO GALERA.

• Reviewer Viktor Vargyai
• Label Roachleg
• Issue MRR #474 • November 2022