For 19 years Desert Storm have been cranking out the riffs and establishing themselves as the kings of Oxford metal scene. There aren't too many bands who can say they've played with some absolute legends while maintaining pretty much the line up since their inception (those pesky bassists) and consistently releasing new material every couple of years without being pigeonholed as "that band with the riffs."
Every record from Desert Storm brings variation on a theme, moving from stoner, to doom, through psych, sludge and post metal with every album, some heavier, some lighter but always finished with that Brit metal grit and clever lyricism. Their seventh album Buried Under The Weight Of Reason, is their first on Heavy Psych Sounds after years as a part of APF, but both labels know what makes riff fans tick so it's a perfect for for Desert Storm.
It's also advantageous for the label as Desert Storm are coming off a run of top class records, so they a very deeply in the purple patch, recorded in their studios in Oxfordshire and mixed/mastered by Joe Clayton of Pijn, the four piece of brothers Ryan (guitar) and Elliot (drums) Cole, bassist Andrew Keyzor and vocalist Matthew Ryan, begin album seven with the slow burning atmospheres of Newfound Respect.
Kicking into Mastodon grooves it draws you into the Desert Storm sound without having to beat you around the head. It's loud but intricate, complex but easy to headbang to, the band shifting style again when it comes to the hypnotic Shamanic Echoes, more Mastodon/Baroness here with the blues in the middle as they take a sonic flight.
From here it's acoustic tones on Woodsman and prog that comes through on Cut Your Teeth and the colossal crush of Rot To Ruin brings huge doom swaggering. Carry The Weight is an introspective intro into the punk fury of Dripback. The final duo of Law Unto Myself and Twelve Seasons, are the two tracks here that are most likely Desert Storm of old.
However that description never really feels apt with Desert Storm as they bring so many different elements. If ever there was a band that deserved to be crowned as the UK's biggest riffers in the wake of Orange Goblin's demise then it's Desert Storm. All Hail! 9/10
Every record from Desert Storm brings variation on a theme, moving from stoner, to doom, through psych, sludge and post metal with every album, some heavier, some lighter but always finished with that Brit metal grit and clever lyricism. Their seventh album Buried Under The Weight Of Reason, is their first on Heavy Psych Sounds after years as a part of APF, but both labels know what makes riff fans tick so it's a perfect for for Desert Storm.
It's also advantageous for the label as Desert Storm are coming off a run of top class records, so they a very deeply in the purple patch, recorded in their studios in Oxfordshire and mixed/mastered by Joe Clayton of Pijn, the four piece of brothers Ryan (guitar) and Elliot (drums) Cole, bassist Andrew Keyzor and vocalist Matthew Ryan, begin album seven with the slow burning atmospheres of Newfound Respect.
Kicking into Mastodon grooves it draws you into the Desert Storm sound without having to beat you around the head. It's loud but intricate, complex but easy to headbang to, the band shifting style again when it comes to the hypnotic Shamanic Echoes, more Mastodon/Baroness here with the blues in the middle as they take a sonic flight.
From here it's acoustic tones on Woodsman and prog that comes through on Cut Your Teeth and the colossal crush of Rot To Ruin brings huge doom swaggering. Carry The Weight is an introspective intro into the punk fury of Dripback. The final duo of Law Unto Myself and Twelve Seasons, are the two tracks here that are most likely Desert Storm of old.
However that description never really feels apt with Desert Storm as they bring so many different elements. If ever there was a band that deserved to be crowned as the UK's biggest riffers in the wake of Orange Goblin's demise then it's Desert Storm. All Hail! 9/10
Axe Dragger - Axe Dragger (Ripple Music) [Rich Piva]
So you are telling me that you have a band with Bob Balch on guitar, Petagram Pete on drums, and Dark Funeral bassist Fredrik Isaksson in a band together? Wait, they play 80s style classic metal like Priest, Maiden, and Dio? That’s crazy? How can this get any better? Well, how about getting the original Pantera vocalist Terry Glaze to sing? Insanity, right? Yes. Reality? Also right, as Ripple Music brings us Axe Dragger, the self titled debut from these four legends of heavy music.
Axe Dragger, from the album Axe Dragger, from the band Axe Dragger…of course this is going to rule, and it does. Priest worship with an amazing solo and Glaze’s vocals that sound like he is in his prime form. What more can you want? How about a track that gives off Armored Saint vibes with Give You Rope, with Balch destroying everything with his guitar work. The dude can do anything with a guitar style-wise, with this record cementing him as one of the absolute greats.
So you are telling me that you have a band with Bob Balch on guitar, Petagram Pete on drums, and Dark Funeral bassist Fredrik Isaksson in a band together? Wait, they play 80s style classic metal like Priest, Maiden, and Dio? That’s crazy? How can this get any better? Well, how about getting the original Pantera vocalist Terry Glaze to sing? Insanity, right? Yes. Reality? Also right, as Ripple Music brings us Axe Dragger, the self titled debut from these four legends of heavy music.
Axe Dragger, from the album Axe Dragger, from the band Axe Dragger…of course this is going to rule, and it does. Priest worship with an amazing solo and Glaze’s vocals that sound like he is in his prime form. What more can you want? How about a track that gives off Armored Saint vibes with Give You Rope, with Balch destroying everything with his guitar work. The dude can do anything with a guitar style-wise, with this record cementing him as one of the absolute greats.
Fight Another Day would have been a first hour Headbanger’s Ball staple back in the day, with Balch confirming his guitar God status next to the giants of the time. The record is chock filled with true 80s metal worship. With some more of my favourites being Eat Me From The Inside, which starts with drums like it is a cover of Strutter until the filthy riff kicks in and the pace slows and gives me this very early Fates Warning vibe, but if they sang about man-eating alligators.
I also love El Toro, which is a two-headed, three minute Dio/Priest hybrid monster here to destroy us all. I also love the chunky riff on Death Is Calling My Name, a song that also highlights the killer vocal performance of Glaze perfectly.
I wonder if anyone involved in the Axe Dragger project could imagine that this record could have come out so great. Yeah, Balch rules, the rhythm section is killer, Glaze has the pipes, etc., but the final outcome of this Axe Dragger certainly exceeded my expectations. If you love classic 80s metal, then there is no reason why Axe Dragger will not be one of your favourite records of the year. 9/10
I wonder if anyone involved in the Axe Dragger project could imagine that this record could have come out so great. Yeah, Balch rules, the rhythm section is killer, Glaze has the pipes, etc., but the final outcome of this Axe Dragger certainly exceeded my expectations. If you love classic 80s metal, then there is no reason why Axe Dragger will not be one of your favourite records of the year. 9/10
Clouds Taste Satanic - Berlin 2023 (Kinda Like Music) [Rich Piva]
I love a good album series. I also love the NYC instrumental band Clouds Taste Satanic. So if I am doing the math right I should automatically love the new release from the band, Berlin 2023.
I love a good album series. I also love the NYC instrumental band Clouds Taste Satanic. So if I am doing the math right I should automatically love the new release from the band, Berlin 2023.
Berlin 2023 is the second in a series of “Live in Studio” records the band is doing where they record at studios all over the world. The first in the series, Birmingham 2024, was, of course, killer, and I am pretty sure the Berlin entry is going to be right up there…
…and it is. You get four classic CTS tracks in their rawest form, sometimes with some subtle and sometimes not so subtle differences, but always true to their original vibe of the song. Second Site, from the 2019 album of the same name, is still one of my favourite CTS songs as it is, but this version takes the already classic to a new level in all of its 21-minute glory.
…and it is. You get four classic CTS tracks in their rawest form, sometimes with some subtle and sometimes not so subtle differences, but always true to their original vibe of the song. Second Site, from the 2019 album of the same name, is still one of my favourite CTS songs as it is, but this version takes the already classic to a new level in all of its 21-minute glory.
You get about half of the amazing track Sun Death Ritual, from 2023’s amazing Tales Of Demonic Possession, which is a very cool and new way to hear the song. From that same record you get Part IV of the epic track Spirits Of The Green Desert.
I love how the band splits these songs up and makes them their own new thing, like they do on this one, which at four minutes could be their radio hit!!! The closer takes us way back to 2015’s Your Doom Has Come with the classic Beast From The Sea which seems to be sped up just a bit, but still hangs with the original with all of its live-in-the-studio rawness the series and the songs involved brings.
I am here for as many of these records as Clouds Taste Satanic does. There is so much great source material to work with, to deconstruct, to reimagine, to just play live; the possibilities are endless, and if number two in the series, Berlin 2023, is just the beginning, CTS fans should rejoice. I have said it before and I will say it again, I don’t always listen to instrumental rock, but when I do, my first choice is usually Clouds Taste Satanic, with Berlin 2023 now in that rotation as well. 8/10
Froglord - Lower & Slower (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]
If there's ever a title that screams, "does what it says on the tin" it's Lower & Slower the sixth album from Bristol's Amphibian merchants of slime soaked doom Froglord. It's a record that doesn't continue the ongoing narrative concepts the band have been showcasing on their previous albums, this intermezzo stalls that for a good cause.
100% of digital proceeds and 50% of physical and merch profits will be donated to the Waterfowl & Wetland Trust (WWT). Froglord turning their advocacy into action by creating an album of reimagined tracks and cover in a style that is rawer, louder, longer and heavier.
Record live in a single take these seven songs have been played in their ugliest, earliest formation, down tuned to all hell and performed at a sludgy pace, they aren't as much transformed as they are adapted into their primal form, as if emerging for the first time from the swamp, gnarly and bewildered before they evolve into a much more advanced form.
There's influences from NOLA sludge and funeral doom on this record so if you know Froglord then it may come as a surprise but I think this record is a look at the creative process, the songs here feel like rough drafts, a frog march at a slower and deliberate pace culminating in an ear bleeding rendition of Iron Man just to remind you of their influences. Heavy music for a good cause? Hop over to their bandcamp to pick up Lower & Slower and play extra loud. 8/10
I am here for as many of these records as Clouds Taste Satanic does. There is so much great source material to work with, to deconstruct, to reimagine, to just play live; the possibilities are endless, and if number two in the series, Berlin 2023, is just the beginning, CTS fans should rejoice. I have said it before and I will say it again, I don’t always listen to instrumental rock, but when I do, my first choice is usually Clouds Taste Satanic, with Berlin 2023 now in that rotation as well. 8/10
Froglord - Lower & Slower (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]
If there's ever a title that screams, "does what it says on the tin" it's Lower & Slower the sixth album from Bristol's Amphibian merchants of slime soaked doom Froglord. It's a record that doesn't continue the ongoing narrative concepts the band have been showcasing on their previous albums, this intermezzo stalls that for a good cause.
100% of digital proceeds and 50% of physical and merch profits will be donated to the Waterfowl & Wetland Trust (WWT). Froglord turning their advocacy into action by creating an album of reimagined tracks and cover in a style that is rawer, louder, longer and heavier.
Record live in a single take these seven songs have been played in their ugliest, earliest formation, down tuned to all hell and performed at a sludgy pace, they aren't as much transformed as they are adapted into their primal form, as if emerging for the first time from the swamp, gnarly and bewildered before they evolve into a much more advanced form.
There's influences from NOLA sludge and funeral doom on this record so if you know Froglord then it may come as a surprise but I think this record is a look at the creative process, the songs here feel like rough drafts, a frog march at a slower and deliberate pace culminating in an ear bleeding rendition of Iron Man just to remind you of their influences. Heavy music for a good cause? Hop over to their bandcamp to pick up Lower & Slower and play extra loud. 8/10
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