So duh, good news that there’s a new Desert Storm LP on the way to follow-up 2023’s Death Rattle (review here), which was the Oxford, UK, riff-rocking four-piece’s third offering through respected-purveyor APF Records and seventh album overall in a tenure well pushing toward its 20-year mark (in ’28). The new one is called Buried Under the Weight of Reason, and even unto the fact that its title is more than one or two words long as all previous Desert Storm releases have been, it speaks to a shift in methodology toward which the new song “Shamanic Echoes” seems likewise to manifest.

No, I’m not just talking about the pretty guitar divergence or the driving crescendo they launch from it, that push of kick drum like the sound your heart should be making if you want to feel alive at just that particular moment, before a lumbering, Mastodonic-prog nod reveals something still burly but quirkier and smoother in melody. But definitely that too. I don’t feel like I’m bragging when I say I’ve covered this band going on 15 years and have heard a fair amount of their work in that time. “Shamanic Echoes” feels like they’re stepping up. You know I love a seven-minute single (really anything over six warms my remembers-radio heart), and for sure their being dug in is an immediate draw, but it’s the shape of the plan at work and the scope from the quiet introduction to the roll that follows through the multifaceted structure that plays out that distinguishes “Shamanic Echoes.” In the beginning of the song, one is as likely to hear Meshuggah as anything else under the growls of the initial verse.

Don’t be intimidated (ever, by anything). That crush, crunch, and gutturalism is central to Desert Storm‘s sound, but already by the time the onslaught starts, the band have subtly clued the audience to the fact that there’s more happening by means of the introduction. What does all of it portend? Well, if Buried Under the Weight of Reason maintained a core approach keyed to aggression and being very, very, very heavy while at the same time being willing to branch beyond the surely-tempting monolithic largesse they foster, that would make it pretty consistent with their trajectory on the whole. They’ve never been a band to stop growing, or stop working on the thing and pushing themselves forward. Their ascent to Heavy Psych Sounds feels like a well-earned next step, and I’ll remain curious for what the rest of Buried Under the Weight of Reason has in store based on “Shamanic Echoes,” which you can hear on the player below, followed by some comment from the band.

Please enjoy:

Desert Storm, “Shamanic Echoes” premiere

Desert Storm on “Shamanic Echoes”:

“Ceremonial in spirit and tribal in sound “Shamanic Echoes” pulses with bass-heavy foundations and thunderous toms its downtuned guitars bending into hypnotic sludgy cadences. The middle passage drops into jazzy syncopated territory before swelling into an earth-shattering crescendo—cause and effect climax and release. Lyrically the track is steeped in ritual plant medicine and ancestral vision-quests: peyote mescalito and sacred smoke opening the gateway to higher states of being. It is both a hallucinatory trip and a sonic initiation.”

SHAMANIC ECHOES is DESERT STORM first single taken from the band’s upcoming new album Buried Under The Weight Of Reason. The release will see the light March 6th via Heavy Psych Sounds.

ALBUM PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/

USA PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm

With their latest body of work, Desert Storm carve out a sound that is as primal as it is progressive—melding sludge, doom, and heavy metal weight with moments of softness, space, and surprising vulnerability.

Across these tracks, the band summon the wilderness, ceremony, and chaos of the human condition, pushing their sound into new territories while staying true to their instinct for heaviness.

Tracklisting:
Side A:
1. Newfound Respect
2. Shamanic Echoes
3. Woodsman
4. Cut Your Teeth
5. Rot To Ruin
Side B:
6. Carry The Weight
7. Dripback
8. Law Unto Myself
9. Twelve Seasons

All music by Desert Storm ( Ryan Cole, Christopher White, Elliot Cole, Matthew Ryan, Andrew Keyzor)
All Lyrics by Matthew Ryan
Photos by Tim Finch Photography
Additional Guitars by Chris White
‘Buried Under The Weight Of Reason’ was tracked & recorded at Woodworm Studios by Steve ‘Geezer’ Watkins & Stu Jones from January – July 2025.
Mixed & Mastered by Joe Clayton at Nø Studios, July & Aug 2025.
All music written by Desert Storm, Lyrics by Matthew Ryan.
© 2025 Heavy Psych Sounds.
Cover Artwork by Kacper Gilka.

DESERT STORM is:
Matthew Ryan – Vocals
Ryan Cole – Guitars
Elliot Cole – Drums
Andrew Keyzor – Bass
Chris White – Guitars (Studio only)

www.desertstormband.com
www.desertstorm.bigcartel.com
www.desertstorm.bandcamp.com
www.youtube.com/desertstormuk
www.instagram.com/desertstormuk
www.facebook.com/desertstormuk

www.heavypsychsounds.com
heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/

Desert Storm, Death Rattle (2023)

Tags: Buried Under the Weight of Reason, Desert Storm, Desert Storm Buried Under the Weight of Reason, Heavy Psych Sounds, Oxford, UK

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2025 at 7:08 am and is filed under audiObelisk, Whathaveyou. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.