Italy’s Threestepstotheocean Perform Majestic Post-Rock On Powerful New Album

On their new album Del fuoco, the Milan, Italy-based post-rock group Threestepstotheocean has captured a majestically heavy portrait of soaring intensity.

The album, at moments like the consistently thundering riffs of “Del deserto,” feels regally powerful, but there’s an earthiness in the tones and a grounded vibe in many of the melodies that together keep the record somewhere that feels powerfully tangible. It’s as if the truly enlivening album captures a soundtrack to ocean waves breaking onto a shore, or — during some of its softer moments — a soundtrack for the moment when the sun breaks over the horizon and day begins.

The record gets quite heavy at times, like during the opening of “Profezie dalle rovine,” but there’s always a certainty-driven stability in the songs. The tracks never feel unwieldy; rather, the melodies coursing through the songs feel like they have been carefully crafted in order to deliver an accessible imprint of power like might be found in the natural world. Listening through the album feels like stumbling across some beautiful formation that has been crafted entirely by the metaphorical hand of nature. It’s as if, at the core of the record’s soundscapes, there’s some kind of beautiful seaside mountain, or some kind of majestically awe-inspiring selection of trees that have seen more between them than most entire generations of humans.

After the grounded regality of “Del deserto,” the following song — “Fiori immortali” — packs a bit more of a cacophonous kick, as if metaphorical waves are picking up. The drum rhythms gallop along and carry powerful splashes of guitar riffing that have a somewhat psychedelic vibe at times, as if they’re the swirls of a whirlpool that Threestepstotheocean have brought listeners to the edge of.

Following the heavy cacophony of “Profezie dalle rovine,” Del fuoco turns towards the simmering, heavy riffs of “Dispersi.” That song feels like it brings many of the album’s themes together, with a wide horizon packed into the song via the breathable vibe in much of the riffing, which itself carries a consistent churn, like a musical rip current.

The album, as a whole, feels vibrantly fresh, like a journey to a previously undiscovered seaside, to take a cue from the picturesque band name.

Del fuoco is available now via Antigony Records, with U.S. distribution via A Thousand Arms and Japanese coverage via Tokyo Jupiter Records.

5/5 Stars

Listen to the powerful Del fuoco from Threestepstotheocean below!