Brown Flag. Now, is that a euphemism or a serious title? And is the album cover of ‘Mood Poisoner’, with its bound and gagged nuns a proper statement or just a simple reflection of this particular bands seemingly overwhelming desire to shock and offend? Regardless of the intention, Desalvo certainly know how to make an impact.

‘Mood Poisoner’ is 6 tracks of honest, brutal and unforgiving metallurgy. Sounding like Every Time I Die if they were hungover, dirty and stricken with a terminal illness, Desalvo throw enough hammering riffs into ‘Brown Flag’ to nail even the most ardent metal fans brains to the wall. Not the most original of guitarwork, but very cleverly structured, it seems Desalvo are masters of the blast of power. The medium of discordance is fully in it’s element in ‘Tonguescraper L & Li’, with yapping vocals reminding us that a singer’s voice can be just as nasty as any distorted guitar. Clocking in at around 7 minutes, this track suddenly grinds to a halt around the 3 minute mark to go into a crazy drum and bass wig-out, before slamming back into heavy kicks and luxurious chords. Maybe it was a piss-take, or maybe it was a serious attempt to cross genres, again Desalvo’s meaning is hard to divine. It was quite amusing though. You do get the feeling though, that ‘Tonguescraper”¦’ was meant to be the last track on the album, until the band decided to put it second to fuck with people’s heads. ‘Ripper Situation’ remedies this by being pretty straightforward however. Still messy, but still delivered in an innovative and intelligent way.

‘Latrine Lizard’ is delicately titled, but unsurprisingly bloody painful to listen to. The vocals at this point sway slightly towards Cradle Of Filth, but never reach the same level of cheesiness thankfully. It’s also strangely reminiscent of cult shock-rockers Anal Cunt, being a trimmed blast of undecipherable noise with a slightly smutty track title.

‘Get Black’ is 3 minutes of ambient jazz, and the finale, ‘Oedipus Rising’, is a jungle/hip hop crossover featuring guest raps from Example and James from Hadouken. No, really!

Okay fine, so you didn’t believe me. And I WAS lying, the final two tracks are predictably metal and more metal. But it’s still highly listenable, in its own right. ‘Mood Poisoner’ doesn’t stick around long enough to piss you off, it’s there, it’s intriguing and then BLAM, it’s gone! I can’t really see this album lasting more than a few repeat listens though. I don’t think my head can take it. Migraine time!

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Desalvo On Myspace