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SAVAGE DESIRE
Living Under Sin EP

Self-released (2022)
Rating: 8.5/10

There’s some excellent straight up metal bands doing the rounds of late, and you can add Brazilian act Savage Desire to the horde because this is driving metal that wouldn’t have sounded out of place in the early 90s.

From the off I’m hearing all manner of influences ranging from D.A.D. to L.A. Guns and to Sea Hags, more so in the slightly gravelled vocal approach of guitarist Leonardo Sinigalhia. It would probably be unfair to call this sleaze metal, although I’m sure back in the day it would’ve had Metal Forces’ own Kelv Hellrazer praising it to high heaven.

That opening cut ‘Wanted N’ Wild’ smokes of streetwise L.A. Guns attitude, snarling with more recent Wildstreet vibes and just billowing a melody straight from Hollywood Boulevard. It’s not often a band makes such an immediate impact, but Savage Desire packs a punch from the off.

‘Saints N’ Sinners’ has a chunky clunk to its steady chug, swaggering with sexual tension to break free from its leather strides. Again there’s that attitude as the drums clank with a steady nod and the bass obliges too.

The catty squawk of ‘The Best That I Can’ has a sort of Faster Pussycat vibe where again the melody is a steady sleaze ball chug. I just love Sinigalhia’s Americanised drool, which for me harkens back to Celtic Frost circa the much criticized Cold Lake (1988) where the snarl was still evident in spite of the new blasts of hairspray.

So while Savage Desire may be keen to mimic the halcyon days of what many may call “hair metal”, this EP just smokes with struttin’ melody. The combo has a wonderful ability to provide instantly catchy tunes, evident on the funky shimmer of ‘Turn Off The Lights’ which flirts with sober Mötley Crüe and cavorts with Faster Pussycat while exhibiting streaks of that funk metal trend like, say, Kingofthehill.

Closer ‘In The Night’ is about as nostalgic as it gets, however, with the simmering intro, the Skid Row and Ratt flirtations, the steady, fiery chug, and the subtle keyboards as a backdrop to the building bravado.

These guys need to get back in the studio as soon as possible and record a full-length platter, because if this EP is anything to go by then Brazil could be the most unlikely place to spawn the next big rock ‘n’ roll band.

With Living Under Sin, Savage Desire has combined snarling melody with some truly authentic yet riveting sleaze metal. Apart from Emissary’s staggeringly awesome self-titled debut, this is my favourite EP release of the year.

Neil Arnold

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