September 2, 2015

Desert Storm - Omniscient

By Ulla Roschat. Omniscient is about 50 minutes and ten songs of a blues infused southern stoner rock with a definite psychedelic vibe, touching metal territory, especially with the vocals, and spiced with funky jazzy elements as well as with calm acoustic parts. It’s also the 3rd full length album of NOLA based … wait, no … Oxford, it’s Oxford UK they come from… all right
By Ulla Roschat.


Omniscient is about 50 minutes and ten songs of a blues infused southern stoner rock with a definite psychedelic vibe, touching metal territory, especially with the vocals, and spiced with funky jazzy elements as well as with calm acoustic parts. It’s also the 3rd full length album of NOLA based … wait, no … Oxford, it’s Oxford UK they come from… all right, Oxford based five piece rock/metal band Desert Storm.

The opening song "Outlander" is a fast paced blues laden groovy stoner track. With this track the band comes strutting into a dark dive bar, like a genie released from the bottle, blaring boldly: "We are Desert Storm and we are going to set this place ablaze!". With this magic spell the bar comes to life…. there’s drinking, joking and shouting, stories are being told, with passion and emotion.

Each of the following songs is like a different aspect of what is going on in the bar, each of a distinct character with a measured intricacy, surprising moments and twists, but they are complected, with intertwining textures, magically bound together by a secret formula that is only effective within the walls of this bar.

While the first songs are all dominated by a groovy stoner vibe that is slowly sliding into a dark heavy swamp atmosphere, the 5th song "Home" is a kind of break, a hauntingly beautiful, dark, bluesy folk tune with clean vocals. From here the songs take on more of the jazzy, funky, boogie attitude, without ever letting go of the southern boozy swamp feel.

With the last song "Collapse of the Bison Lung" the genie struts out of the bar as bold as he came in, stomping and raging with one last crushing blast to make sure the destruction is complete and the magic goes up in smoke.

Open the genie’s bottle, or simply push the play button for Omniscient and Desert Storm will take you to the magic bar with their intoxicating homemade spice blend of bluesy, funky, psychedelic and dark folky tunes they use to create their unique style of southern downtuned heaviness.

The song "Home" is featured on The Wicked Lady Show 83

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