Progressive metal band Desert Storm announce new album and share 1st single

3rd February 2023 0 By Jon Deaux

Desert Storm is a four-piece progressive metal band, which has been wielding crushing riffs and grooves into earholes around the world for the past 15 years.

Hailing from Oxford, the city of screaming spires, Desert Storm deliver their own unique brand of heavy music. Their sound is loud, punishing and unforgiving, but also woven with elation and electrical ecstasy.

31st March 2023 will see the release of their new album ‘Death Rattle’ out worldwide on APF Records (Video Nasties, Possessor, Battalions). Vocalist Matt Ryan states,

“Death Rattle is an album that leans to Desert Storm’s strengths in songwriting ability. It is cohesive and flows with each song telling an individual tale, bound by common topics throughout. Genre traversing, musically progressing from the extreme and hard to softer palettes, moments of the ethereal. The light and dark shades are synonymous with the Desert Storm sound, as that which is completely light or dark is neither truly without contrast.

This is true also for the lyrics which span thematically. The core string section of two guitars and single bass are complemented by an array of other instruments throughout the album, but act as a solid foundation for heavy grooves and riffs. Death Rattle is best served loud.”

The album was recorded & mixed at the beautiful Woodworm Studios in Oxfordshire by Steve ‘Geezer’ Watkins. The studio used to be owned by legendary folk band Fairport Convention, and in recent years has seen the likes of Tony Iommi & Rob Halford recording there.

Once the album was recorded and mixed, it was sent to Portland, Oregon, USA for Brad Boatright at Audiosiege to master (Torche, Nails, High on Fire). The artwork is by David Paul Seymour & layout by Dominic Sohor.

Commenting on first single ‘Cheyne Stoking’, Matt adds,

“Cheyne Stoking is about the death trip that occurs in all of us, moments before we die. As the pineal gland just straight dumps what DMT remains into the body to invoke the deepest dreamlike experience, otherwise referred to as the near-death experience. Lyrics draw partially from ingestion of synthesized DMT and some imagination as it differs to what is reported of the actual death experience. Thoughts and memories come to the forefront of the mind, and it is reportedly like living everything all at once before the final curtain call. The lyrics are not cryptic, they quite explicitly describe what we imagine to be the experience. Cheyne stokes breathing is also known as the death rattle. This is where the breath becomes irregular and raspy in the final moments before death. This seemed a fitting title for the track and subsequentially the album.”

In some towns, you have a music scene to work with and in others, you have to make the scene around you. Desert Storm built the Oxford scene themselves. Launched into the world in 2007, Desert Storm’s mix of progressive metal and stoner doom was underpinned with a driving, pure rock ‘n’ roll strut. It’s a formula that makes for a reliably arse-kicking band.

After testing the waters with their 2008 self-titled EP, Desert Storm truly came into their own in time for their debut full-length, Forked Tongues in 2010; a radically tighter band on said record and finally beginning to capture the force of their live shows. It’s an upward trend that carried through their two follow-ups Horizontal Life and Omniscient respectively.

Perhaps that evolution in sound on the record is through their consistency in touring. Always taking their wares on the road, operation Desert Storm has been in full effect on tours with the likes of Karma to Burn and Nashville Pussy, as well as when sharing the stage with bands such as Orange Goblin, Weedeater, and The Atomic Bitchwax.

By the time of 2018’s Sentinels [APF011], Desert Storm had found a refined sound. With more “oomph” driving the power behind the band than in any previous outing, tastier riffs, and more viscidity throughout the record, it captured a band at the top of their game; road hardened and ready to get stuck in. Whether it’s the springy, stoner stomp of ‘Drifter’, the verging on thrash moments seen in ‘Too Far Gone’ or everything in between, this was THE Desert Storm album so far.

But we didn’t bet against them topping those heights when the next album came around, and we were right not to do so. 2020’s Omens became their piece de la resistance. In 2022 Desert Storm won an HRH Award, in the Stoner Lords category, beating off stiff competition from Black Rainbows, Kadavar, and Green Lung.

Unable to tour it due to the pandemic, work commenced on a new record which has resulted in ‘Death Rattle’, their greatest effort yet.

Pre-order the album now – https://linktr.ee/desertstormuk

Over the years Desert Storm have been out on countless headline tours and have toured and shared the stages across the UK & Europe with many incredible bands including Crowbar, Orange Goblin, Karma To Burn, Red Fang, Corrosion of Conformity, CKY, American Headcharge, Conjurer and Raging Speedhorn to name a few. In 2023 they will tour extensively to support the release of ‘Death Rattle’.

DESERT STORM ‘DEATH RATTLE’ EUROPEAN TOUR