Politically charged Brazilian bump and grind time. Desalmado, which I have just discovered means heartless or cruel have been compared to the likes of Nasum and Brutal Truth and that may well be how they sounded over their earlier albums where I see their songs were a bit shorter than what we have here. Perhaps they have grown a bit from the constraints of their music to where we are now with songs averaging the 3-4 minute mark in a similar way to recent Napalm Death who to my ears they sound considerably more akin to with both the harmonic destruction and apocalyptic vibes played out over this 38-minute banger.

Indeed, an exit wound is the trajectory of the bullet as it ploughs its way through the skull over the title track. Its brash, bruising, has hooks and a meaty production. Vocalist Caio Augusttus has a beefy bellow to say the least and forcefully hollers out his parts around the raging instrumental work. Still, there’s a touch of doom as it slows down and that aforementioned end of the world vibe can easily be acknowledged. Perhaps its due to the fact I haven’t reviewed anything of this nature for a while but the material here sounds fresh (with a certain rotten disgust about it) and the grooves and bounce are invigorating and suitably angry. There are some neat underlying melodies found amidst the turmoil and the sound which at times takes in slight facets of everything from hardcore to sludge is far from one-dimensional. The Brazilians have a lot to be angry about and the barbed hostility of ‘Praise the Lord and Kill the People’ could easily be directed at thr inefficient handling of the pandemic by ‘religious nationalist’ Jair Bolsonaro. This is not a difficult jigsaw puzzle to complete. The slow lumbering ‘Hollow’ is no doubt just how people feel with desperation at the heart as the bodies have piled up. There’s even a wailing woman amidst the musical wreckage. Desalmado have plenty to be angry about and at least they have an outlet for it and to coin a cliché there’s no lack of fear, emptiness and despair going down here. ‘Unity’ even has a lengthy beatdown session people may be run into the ground but they ain’t going down without a fight.

Towards the end a couple of tracks took a slightly different twist in a crusty direction and I went looking to see if Rebelião and Esmague os fascistas (a song title that speaks for itself) were obscure cover songs by someone like Ratos de Porão. It appears not but they certainly could be if you get my point and this is all part of the same família!

Mass Mental Devolution is a solid and brutal album, it has left me feeling fired up and pissed off, exactly what this sort of music should do. Join the fight at the following links!

(7.5/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/desalmado.band

https://gruesomerecords.bandcamp.com/album/mass-mental-devolution-2021