Exclusive Album Stream: Desert Storm – ‘Omens’

UK sludge outfit Desert Storm have taken their music to the next level with their overall fifth full-length effort, Omens, arriving this Friday (1st) via APF Records. The album was recorded and mixed by Steve ‘Geezer’ Watkins at Woodworm Studios, and mastered by Tim Turan at Turan Audio. The group continues to challenge their craft as the follow-up to 2018’s Sentinels brings a darker level along with balancing between their trademark sludge sound to adding more melodic enhancements. Today (28th), Desert Storm has teamed up with Metal Insider for an exclusive early stream of their new offering.

The band commented:

“We have been forging Omens for about a year now. Refining it has taken time but we wanted to wait until we were completely happy with the material before laying it down. Despite our sound having changed over the years, our process is still much the same. We start with a riff or some sort of light idea, this is a slight impression which is developed and worked into a song. It’s quite organic because this comes the most naturally to us. We are mates outside of the band which helps massively, having the chemistry there before the music means you gel. We decided to concentrate on making something which sounded cohesive for Omens. On our previous albums we have almost split the tracks between two sounds, but here we have gone for an all out audible onslaught. In the past we have also tried to make an album too long, which has resulted in us having to change track listings in order to fit the whole thing on a record. Lyrically, the only reprieve comes from the closing track of the album. The rest of it is fucking bleak. It was exciting to create vocal harmonies between Chris and Matt, the result is exactly what we were aiming for. Laying it all down was a long process for a number of reasons, one of which being the sheer number of layers and nuances behind the more prominent sounds. Recording took places over the course of four months. The result is a record which boasts a complete experience for the listener, you can spin the entire thing repeatedly and keep discovering new parts. Another difference between Omens and our earlier releases is that we chose to not perform the new material live until the album is out, so we are eager to get back out on the road to jam it. It was a blast to make and we are chuffed with how it sounds. Hope you are too!”

Stream Omens below and pre-order it here: