Mostly that, probably. The SWDb lists it because we have a gray area of “sw-adjacent” flicks…
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For me, I see the film in much the same way that @scherpschutter does in his review as he says that it is “a prototype of the so-called Zapata westerns”.
The Taste of Violence Review - The Spaghetti Western Database (spaghetti-western.net)
But, part of what makes this site entertaining is everyone’s differing viewpoints.
yeah in the end it comes down to a whatever specific definition of what constitutes a “western”. Academic literature isn’t entirely in agreement on this, and that’s part of the beauty, too. For a geographic definition, a movie would have to take place - albeit as a work of fiction - somewhere in the “wild west”, which would include Mexican territory today part of the United States, including maybe areas that are vaguely the border area(s). If Taste of Violence is unspecific as to the country it takes place in, that makes it hard to nail it down from that perspective.
The films set in the Mexican Revolution are only westerns for me if they are directed like a western, and this one here is not directed in a typical western style. It doesn’t feel like western, while the later films associated with the genre mostly do. Il mercenario is for me without any doubt a western, and Quien sabe? also, despite its director claiming that it is not one. But Quien sabe? is also on the border.
Another tricky example is Viva Cangaceiro. Being located in Brasil it does not look like a western, but it was clearly made in the context of the SW, and uses many of the typical tropes of the political westerns, so it makes sense to watch it as part of the political cycle of Spags. While the Hossein film is a kind of its own, and is imo quite different from the typical political Spag.
Bur amongst the prototypes of the Italian political westerns are also several US films, and while some of these are westerns (like Bandido, 1956), others are not, especially Viva Zapata (Elia Kazan, 1952) is not a western imo.
But then, some view it as SW, and I accepted it in the counting for the top 20, as I did accept a few more films which do not belong to the genre imo.
If I would view it as a western, it would have made my top 20 without a doubt.
Well, some do not even view Cemetery Without Crosses as a SW for being a French film, and some would say that Giu la testa is more a war film than a western.
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I re-watched Cut-Throats Nine over the holidays, and spent most of the runtime contemplating whether or not it’s a SW.
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and why wouldn’t it be? just because it takes place in the snow? would you feel the same if it was shot in the deserts of almeria? 
Nah, it’s one of those “Eurowesterns” a broad term we all love. Its production was rather on the Spanish side I believe.
The first time I watched this movie, I thought it was more of a horror movie and didn’t rate it too highly - I have softened on that opinion after a few watches.
For me all Spanish westerns from these years are as much Spags as the Italian ones.
Euro-Westerns are e.g. the German or the British ones. And while Cemetery Without Crosses is without any doubt a “real” SW, Guns of San Sebastian is not one, and actually Red Sun for me neither.
why, though?
Red Sun, or better Soleil Rouge, is mainly a French film by a British director, shot in English (I think) and with basically a French crew and an international cast. (Yes, I know the Italians gave some money too)
And the film’s style is typically 70s, of course, but not much like a SW imo. I never viewed it as a SW, it was always a typical Euro-Western for me.
Actually it looks more like an US western shot in Spain than a SW.
(Apart from that all it is for me a mediocre film anyway, which spoils most of its possibilities.)
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By the time @stanton is finished, it may be time to shut down the site as there won’t be any spaghetti westerns left. 
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Yes, I’m working on that …
(it’s a secret, but the US film industry is sponsoring me)
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I would classify The Taste of Violence and O Cangaceiro as part of the genre myself.
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Always a risk 
Although, I must say my feelings are pretty much in line with Brother Stanton’s. T of V is no Spag for me and neither is O’Cang. I’ll give Red Sun a free pass as I do the Spanish westerns and Cemetery Without Crosses which is 100% spaghetti for me despite all the Frenchiness.
Don’t get me started on the zapatas because I go into a full existential meltdown. I consider them spaghettis but are they even really westerns? Oh god, I feel the sweats coming on 
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#77 on our Top 20 ++, Taste of Violence has been updated to the new layout (3.0). Let us know if you can add anything: pictures, posters, trivia, facts, figures, links, etc…
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