During the tenth track of this album, Romania's DIRTY SHIRT clearly state their intentions. They want to make music from the heart, they're not interested in getting rich, following trends or having the label interfere with the creative process. And listening to "Dirtylicious", it sounds like they've succeeded.

This, is a very, very odd album. Recorded alongside THE TRANSYLVANIAN FOLK ORCHESTRA (for such a thing exists), it's essentially Folk Metal but with the rulebook shredded and as many weird moments thrown in as possible. The opening instrumental is little more than a violinist having a caffeine fuelled freak out before expanding into "Moneyocracy". This first track proper is like hearing SYSTEM OF A DOWN ramping up their Folk elements, throwing in some crushing guitar riffs and then adding an incredibly catchy chorus that'll lodge in your head for days.

And then it starts to get really offbeat.

From here, DIRTY SHIRT switch moods so quickly it's difficult to keep up. At times they recall the faithful being called to prayer as the sun rises over Marrakech, at others they could be the soundtrack to bare chested Eastern Europeans having a curly-moustached weight lifting competition. On the closing "Calusarii" they briefly venture into redneck line-dancing territory before the Orchestra rounds things off with a manic instrumental blitz. It's a hyperactive, multiple-personality rampage performed by people who clearly haven't been taking their meds and is very difficult to compare to anything else out there. They sometimes recall a Balkan FINNTROLL crossed with VIZA, but ultimately DIRTY SHIRT only sound like DIRTY SHIRT.

Admittedly, it doesn't all work and "Dirtylicious" isn't the most consistent Folk Metal release out there, but for the most part this is a very enjoyable thirty six minutes and some of the melodies are blissful. Ignore the rather rubbish band name, if you like your Metal to think outside the box but still retain a sense of fun, this is well worth checking out.