Luke Bentham, guitarist and vocalist in Hamilton, Ontario, rock outfit the Dirty Nil, was in the basement caverns under the Vatican when he glimpsed something that changed the direction of his band. It was a series of bronze reliefs by Francesco Messina, depicting the horrors of war. Amid the six pieces in the series, one in particular grabbed Bentham: It showed two men in desperate hand-to-hand combat, grappling to get control of a knife. “It was the hardest piece of art I’d seen in a very long time,” says Bentham.