Desert Storm‘s latest record, the alcohol soaked Horizontal Life is a slice of dirty rock n roll, served with plenty of chutzpah and a side order of filthy riff making. You do have to pinch yourself that they hail from Oxford, England rather than the putrid, fetid swamps of Louisiana.
Horizontal Life continues the booze filled tradition of the debut album, Forked Tongue. There are no airs and graces, no attempts at supreme cleverness or artifice but, in its place, you get a full pack of riffs, soldered in hell and set to tear strips of your face. ‘Mr Strongbatch’ is a head banging delight; shorn of anything remotely approaching what we used to refer to as a “frill”, it’s a no messin about riffathon that reminds me of Black Label Society at their most organic but without the guitar histrionics.
‘Enslaved In The Icy Tundra’ is one of the darkest tracks the band have delivered: it’s cold, relentless and uncompromising; exactly as we like our heavy metal then.
‘No Slave To Master’ is dirtier than a weekend away with your best mates girlfriend, low slung and putrid, it’s paean to marijuana being more of a way into its dirty grooves than any kind of
There’s a psychedelic quality at the start of Shenzen that soon morphs into a brutal, blues based track, full of venom and bile: as you have probably guessed, I like it quite a bit.
Desert Storm wear their hearts as well as their influences on their sleeves but this is no bad thing. On the contrary, their honesty and candour, their work ethic and their worship of the riff will do them no harm and do you plenty of down and dirty good. Horizontal Life is a dirty, filthy, smelly record. As you can probably tell, I like it like I like my bourbon: in massive quantities.
8/10
Mat Davies