Salmo
The Island Chainsaw Massacre

Coming from my beautiful land, Sardinia, Maurizio Pisciottu, known as SALMO, is the new powerful revelation of the most extreme and experimental fringe of Italian Hardcore Rap. However, he is no novice taking his first steps! In fact, after a past as an Hardcore Punk singer (ToedGein) and Rap Metal (Skasico), Salmo as a rapper presents his first full-length album “The Island Chainsaw Massacre,” a true concentrate of innovation, extremism, and class.

Encased in superb artwork created by the renowned freelance artist from Cagliari, Francesco Liori, the album consists of seventeen scorching tracks. No dips, no fillers. Just pure and simple destruction. Forget the bland rap, devoid of meaning and filled with trivialities that now dominate the national radio and music TV stations. Salmo shreds the hip hop canons, spits on them, destabilizing beats and rhymes with a unique and personal style, but above all, overwhelming. He transcends the limits and purist rules of the genre and dives headlong into experimental rap, as previously mentioned, which draws on various influences that might be light-years apart but are cohesive in the name of aggression and heaviness. Metal, Drum & Bass, assaulting electronics, and savage groove. And all of this not clumsily patched together but tied by an excellent choice of sounds and an outstanding flow, a personal vocal timbre not studied, but polished and very versatile, probably due to his metal/hardcore past (listen to the mentioned bands he was part of to get an idea). There are also some features with underground artists: En?gma, Dj Slait, and El Raton.

The content does not fall short either, with a variety that not only aligns with the many influences of the artist but offers a stylistic multiplicity and effectiveness in storytelling that make the listening experience “rich” and fill the album with diverse and shifting facets, settings, and colors without falling into the boring and unconvincing classic clichés of the street rapper or the gangster with phantom enemies that rap is rife with. The themes range from attacks of cynicism, misanthropy, and outbursts against the system (“If you have no money you're nobody. But if you're somebody, it's because you owe money to someone!” from Rancho Della Luna), against the nation (“I love the sense of hatred, corroded like those who know they will never be famous. But what do you mean by famous? In Italy, it's understood by how much you sell out” from “Il Senso Dell’Odio”) to vivid and dense stories ("La Prima Volta") and beyond without sermons or banal rhetoric, with dozens of references to characters, stories, and other artists. Not to mention that some tracks are simply perfect bangers for live shows like “L’Erba Di Grace,” a frenzy built on a solid and substantial Drum&Bass base, or “Street Drive-In,” rapped over rocky guitar riffs with a Metal flavor, especially intense when Salmo proclaims “I come from Punk, from Metal, from 90s Rap and I shove the fresh rap up my ass rest assured.” Literally spine-chilling!!

I’ve had the chance to see him live several times, and I highly recommend you attend one of his concerts. Forget the classic live rap atmosphere; attending a Salmo concert is something that surpasses traditional genre habits, leading to heaps of pogo, violent concert moshcore dances, and Wall of Death (!!!). In these live shows, he offers his devastating remix of “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” by Skrillex, named “Kimbo Slice,” where on the now-famous dubstep base, he displays an eclecticism and unmatched power, at least in Italy. Brilliant is the idea of using the mentioned piece at the end of the song with the typical wobble bass as the final breakdown. Incredibly violent! Punches in the air!

Abrasive like few others and a warning for those who only know how to be foreign-loving, Salmo, with the countless variations of his music, embraces many different types of audiences, and above all, those with no limits in music listening will find The Island Chainsaw Massacre truly addictive. And not just as an excellent product of undisputed quality, but as a true masterpiece of Hip Hop made in Italy.