Hail metalheads!!!
Ever heard of Wacken Open Air Festival ;)?
Each year one band represents Israel on the fierce Wacken Metal Battle – the special event, showcasing best of the unsigned metal bands from all over the globe.
The band to represent our country will be chosen during the live metal night, at "Barbie" club, Tel-Aviv on April 7, featuring Missing In Action, Negative Projection, Requiem For Dawn, Demented Sanity and also Desert.
Each band will show their best and you get to choose – if you be there!
We are ready to show Germany some true "white and blue" heavy metal, especially now, with tunes from upcoming album – true melodic metal, yet heavier and darker than ever before.
Will DESERT hit the German stage this year?
It's up to you!
Come, vote, bang your heads and lead us to the biggest metal event in the world!!!!

Stay Metal!!!!

So, as they say, now you can have 20% more metal for the same admission price :)

Stay true, Desert.

Hail metalheads!
We have some exiting news!
Desert is constantly looking for ways to bring the show to a higher level.
Some of the ideas we introduced in the upcoming album demand more than five of us could ever deliever. That's why another guitarist will be joining Desert on stage!
Since we believe that the Israeli scene deserves nothing short of the ultimate, we had to look for the best guitarsit to fit our style and join the family!
Without further due, let us introduce Sergei "MetalHeart" Nemichenitser.
Sergei is known for his work with Afterlife and numerous other projects.
He has been our friend for years now and man, the guy extracts some mean sounds from his Les Paul!

So, as they say, now you can have 20% more metal for the same admission price :)

Stay true, Desert.

We've decided to upload our new song from the upcoming album for everybody to listen to for free!
The track is called "Lament for Soldier's Glory (Order 227)", it's a power ballad type of track, hosting Joakim Broden, the lead singer of Sabaton as the guest singer.
So, here it comes!
Order 227, representing the upcoming album, entitled "Star of Delusive Hopes".
Recorded in June 2009 by Nick Savio in Remaster Studios (Italy), mixed and mastered in August by Andy LaRocque in Sonic Train Studios (Sweden), available for you free of charge!
Lament - a formal expression of sorrow or mourning, esp. in verse or song; an elegy or dirge.
You will hear a requiem for glory, which common soldier is deprived of.
Of any armed conflict, only few names remain in memory of masses, in history books.
What about millions of men, who fight these battles, make sacrifices?
Common soldier does not start a war.
It's the commander who orders troops into battle; it’s the commander who has most chances to live the final day of war.
The song is a salute to penal battalions of the Soviet Army during the WW2.
Construction of penal battalions was ordered by Stalin's famous order no. 227 ("Not One Step Back").
Men were sent to breach enemy lines, disarm mine fields, used as cannon fodder with little chance of surviving.
Death rate in those units was, according to some sources, up to 70%.

Hail metalheads!
Desert's new CD is currently being mixed at Sonic Train studio, Sweden.
The man behind the mixing console (or the ProTool rig, if you will) is no less than the one and only Andy LaRocque himself!
Mr. LaRocque work can be heard all over Evergrey and Falconer albums, so we're pretty sure the man won't let you down!
By the way, Andy is also known for his work as long time guitarist/songwriter for King Diamond.
The mixing is mostly done, and we can't wait to get the mastered CD back from Sweden!
Tune in for more updates, coming soon!

Stay heavy, Desert.

Hi folks!
We hope you all know by now that Desert really wants to deliever the best music possible, so...
In efforts to make the sound bigger and the songs better we've invited a few guests to sing on the record.
Without further due...
Joakim Broden from Swedish power metal force Sabaton sang duet with Alexei on the song "Lament For Soldier's Glory", which is a power ballad telling the story of lost souls, victims of their time - penal batallions of Soviet Red Army during the WW2.
The war theme is a favorite of one of Joakim, so he gladly accepted the invitation.
Our own Israeli Rami Salmon, lead singer for Edgend, Metal Scent and Stella Maris, joined Alexei for 5 (five) songs, delievering extra punch with his unbelievable rock'n'roll voice.
Last but not least, our friend and producer Nick Savio backed up Alexei, Joakim and Rami on some songs, providing deep low baritone to the choruses.
Nick also contributed some guitar and bass tricks - for example the scary guitar whammy bar slide in the intro for "Letter of Marque" was done by Nick - the guy is an awesome guitarist, which will be proven once again on our CD.
A lot of good stuff is happening to the band right now.. stay tuned for more!

As usual - stay heavy!
Desert.

Hail metalheads!

Here's some insight on the titles from Alexei.
The album is called "Star of Delusive Hopes".
The name pretty much sums the whole concept - striving for glory, efforts to bring freedom - failed.
Betrayal, exile, murder. And hope for the best.
We've never been too optimistic with our hopes and wishes. Are we wrong? Time will tell...

The tracklist:

1. The Unsubdued
2. Massada Will Never Fall
3. Letter Of Marque
4. Victim Of The Light
5. Release Me
6. Soul Of A Wanderer
7. Whispers
8. Lament For Soldier’s Glory (Order 227)
9. Star Of Delusive Hopes

Some songs were performed live once or twice, so you'll recognize it.
We guarantee - they sound and feel better than ever.
Some songs are brand new - the opening track Unsubdued, telling tale of Giordano Bruno, is basically written on the way to Italy.
Methinks it's the best track.

Stay tuned for more tasty stuff.
As always - stay heavy,

Desert.

The whole idea was changing faces.
Each song has a unique vibe, yet sharing the basic idea.
You'll hear East and West, Russia and France, and a bit of Jerusalem in this record.
For the ladies out there, we've even got a love ballad.
The lyrics to the album share the message of independency, and striving to freedom.
Songs tell stories of great men and women who lived and gave their lives for freedom and glory.
You'll hear stories of great deeds by Napoleon, Joan of Arc, heroes of Massada siege, and unknown soldiers who died in the fields of Russia.

Hail metalheads!

We have great news. Actually, greatest news ever!
After working on some new stuff for quite a while, we've decided that the riffs kick so much butt they need to be recorded for everybody to hear!

Hail Metal Maniacs!
Just like in the old days, Desert will play a show in the heart of the actual desert, it's hometown Beer-Sheva on December 18'th.
The band will appear on stage of "TrueMetal II" fest, which gathers some of the best local acts for a second time, for a noble purpose of raising donations for fighting children's cancer.
Desert will share the stage with great bands from all around the country, acts like all-star Metalscent, Wacken-winning The Fading, Beer-driven After Grev and our dear friends, thrash-till-death motorheads Strident!

It is going to be an unforgettable event for the local scene, for sure - "TrueMetal II" fest filled the new Baroque club to the max with metalheads from all over Israel!

For those of you not from Beer-Sheva - the event will take place in the recently opened club, called Baroque.

It's a beautiful place, with great sound, great crew, and fantastic atmosphere!
If you consider the minimal admission price and the fantastic line-up, nothing should stop you from catching a ride to the heart of the Desert.

Stay true, Desert.

Hail metal maniacs!
This year we were lucky to have a lot of great shows by acts from all around the world, ranging from metal gods Sabaton to dinosaur rockers Deep Purple (amen!).
Swedish doom metal stars Draconian will return to Israel soon to repeat it's fantastic show they've played a year ago with legendary Therion.
Desert will play a support show for this awesome band to spill some power metal light on a doom-driven stage.
Another support act that night will be famous Israeli band Distorted.
Although we, Desert, stick to playing dark epic metal, this time we've decided to add few more songs to a list that we're sure doom/goth metal fans will appreciate!
All the details you need to make it to the show are one the flyer below.

Stay extreme, Desert!

Hello again, fellow madmen!
It's time for some changes, and only positive ones!
We've been bored with our old logo for some time now, and been looking for a chance to dump it...
Finally, we've found a perfect man to help us, and I've gotta say, the guy is a master of his art!
Naturally, we couldn't settle for just "some guy", we had to get the best out there, because we truly feel you guys deserve to see a nice logo instead of some DIY stuff, you know...
To cut the bullshit short, I'm proud to announce that we hired Jobert Mello (artist for Sabaton and many other acts) to do our logo.
See the results for yourselves, feel welcomed ot use our mySpace page www.mySpace.com/DesertPowerMetal to write us what you think!

Stay inspired, Desert!

Hail metalheads!
Finally, we're going North.
For the first time, Desert will play a show in Haifa city, and we're counting days 'till the show!
We will share the stage with our great friends, Arafel (metal with growling vocals and all kinds of influences), and few other bands, as well.
The chosen arena is Haifa's "City Hall", tickets are avaible for pre-order throught the North, see the flyer (below) for details!
We'll be performing a set of mixed material - songs you already know, and some stuff for the upcoming record, as well.
Continuing our tradition, we will perform a brand new song as well.
Can't wait to see you all there!

Stay true, Desert.

Hail metalheads!
Many of you attended the Sabaton show in Tel-Aviv last week, 12.09, filling the not-so-small Barbie TA club to the fullest!
It was a blast seeing all of you under one roof, screaming like madmen!
We had an honor to be a part of the show, and it was simply amazing, the way you guys greeted us, and of course, seeing Sabaton perform our favorite songs.
Despite common opinion, that day showed everybody that power metal scene in Israel is alive and kicking, growing every day, already big enough to attract attention from all over the world!
Our Swedish guests, Sabaton, really appreciated the welcome and now, when they whitnessed the absolute madness of Israeli metal fans, the scene's sure gonna grow even bigger, fed by shows from both local and foreign acts!
Pictures and detailed review are avaible on-line at www.metalist.co.il, as well as forum's discussion topic.
By the way, our vocalist Alexei spent a day after the show with Sabaton, driving around Jerusalem.
These guys are the best, being more open and friendly than most of the people we ever worked with.
Our bands even exchanged T-shirts!
Stay tuned for photos and a detailed report!

Yours, Desert.

This is one of the best announcements I ever made.
Heavy metal monsters SABATON (Sweden) are going to play a single show in Barbie club Tel-Aviv, at September 12th, supported by DESERT and our dear friends, heavy/power metal band AFTERLIFE.
Sabaton, one of our favorite bands, sing of military courage, glory, shame, betrayal. They praise heroes and damn the traitors.
Majotity of their songs are about the World War II (which everyone with European or Russian roots will love - makes us remember one more time the endless courage of our grandfathers), but they have this very special song, Counterstrike, about the Six Day War.

Sabaton sings:

"..Six days of fire, one day of rest!
June 67 tought them respect
Control Jerusalem!"

As all of you have already heard, there's a huge, one-of-a-kind HALLELUJAH fest in less than two weeks - May 30th.
The event will host some of the best Israeli rock acts, such as Betzefer, The Fading, Edgend, and many, many more!
Naturally, Desert coudn't miss the opportunity to share the stage with these great bands, and deliever insanely intensive live show!
All the profits from the fest will be donated to fight against child abuse - we don't get paid at all, and this makes your presence absolutely obligatory!
This, and an unbelievaly low ticket price - it's 30NIS!!
A day long live metal madness for a price of a hamburger!
The event will take place at May 30th, the location is called "Kohav Shmeni (the eighth star)" in Herzliya.
Gates will open at 15:00.

Stay heavy, and remember - metal is all about living!

Hail metalheads!

Slowly, but steadily we conquer the mass media :)
Desert's Alexei Raymar was invited to take part in Metal Mania radio show
next Tuesday, May 20th.
The show is aired on Kol-ha-Kineret station (106Mhz FM), and features rocking playlists, insights on Israeli and foreign bands, show reviews, and much more - a great Heavy Metal broadcast, something hard to find on radio these days!

Hail metalheads!

Once again we are preparing a conspiracy against pop music...
The production team, A&M Releases, has provided the details for next Tel-Aviv perfomance.
Desert is celebrating the arrival of new drummer, and trust us, this guy is gonna show off, so be sure to watch it!
This is going to be something you probably didn't expect - a real Power Metal celebration, the whole night of lightning-fast riffs and real, clean power metal sound!

We weren't sure Desert would handle this amount of power by itself, so reinforcement is ready - our long-time friends, The Afterlife and Altharya will be there too!

The show is scheduled for March 29th,Saturday.
Gates open at 20:00 sharp, don't be late, as A&M is known for it's precision timing - we'll start the show with no delays, as we always do.
Entrance fee is as small as 50 NIS, so you can afford to get more beers, more merchendise, more fun!

So remember - March 29'th, 20:00. Unleash the Power!

Forever yours, A&M, Desert, Afterlife, Altharya.

We are thrilled to finally deliever the good news - DESERT have just made the decision to invite the new drummer to join the band - and he accepted!

His name is Zohar Telor, he kicks the hell of of the drums, is into prog style of playing, and is going to rock with us!

You can check him out at his own mySpace page.

We are ready to perform at any moment, and it seems that soonest shows will be performed.

Welcome, the new member of our family, the battle rage is on!

Hail metal, Max, Oleg, Alexei, Vadim.

Released in the US on Nov. 27th!

Greetings fellow metalheads!

We're proud to announce that one of the songs from "Prophecy of the Madman" EP is going to be released in the US as part of "Israel Unleashed" compilation, which presents some of the best Israeli metal bands to the American audience.

This unique compilation brings you some of the finest local bands, giving a taste of the Israeli heavy metal scene, ranging from prog/death sound of ABED, through melodic doom tracks by DISTORTED, to DESERT's dark epic mood.

We are represented by our song called "Desert (In your soul)".
The complete track list is avaiable on Road Runner Records

This release will be out at November 27th,
produced by Dean Schachtel, and published by JMG.

Avaiable for on-line order at Jewish Music Group

Stay tuned, Desert.

We are sad to announce that Desert had to part musical ways with our long time friend and drummer Max Balagula.

Unfortunately for all of us, Max could no longer contribute to Desert's journey to the top, because of personal difficulties.

Being an active part of Desert requires sacrifices to be made. Max walked our way for a long time, but eventually, he had to give up on too much to go on. Max is our close personal friend and is going to remain a part of Desert family forever.

We hope to work with him in future, using his incredible skills in our future solo projects.
He was a driving force behing our drum throne - we would not be able to release "Prophecy Of The Madman" without him.

Currently, Desert is ready to perform and record, with help of our friend and great session drummer Matan Shmuely.

We suffered a great loss, but the show must go on.
If you are a skillful drummer, and have enough guts to join Desert both on stage and in studio - contact us, and maybe you will become our fifth brother for years to come!

The madness never stops - it's just looking for fifth victim...

Max, Oleg, Vadim, Alexei.

Hail metal fanatics!

The band thanks all of you who were insane enough to come and see our Beer-Sheva show, July 19th, and celebrate Desert's birthday together!

Under the skies, it was hot, it was loud, you were really crazy out there, and we enjoyed playing like never before! Your energy was so high it made us shred our strings and keys like maniacs!

Desert salutes Salvation, the band who stood by our side that night, the show wouldn't happen without these guys.

Special thanks to Guy Nakash (Salvation, Metalist) for co-producting the show with A&M Releases.

Special guest, Matan Shmuely (Distorted, Moonskin, Stella Maris), cared to come all the way across Israel, and take over the drum throne to blast the living shit out of subwoofers!

Hail Strident, the thrash band who supported our show like no band ever did - 'thrash 'till death' is not just beautiful phrase with these guys!

Finally, I personally thank the whole production crew - we are lucky to work with true metal warriors!

All photos from the gig you can find here.

You can't stop the madness - it's IN THE AIR NOW!

A&M Releases puts out some new merch for you to enjoy - this time it's Desert stickers to place on your car, guitar, front door or whatever you wish! Vynil-covered, with custom graphics, these are worth having!

Hail Insane!

We're happy to announce addition of new Desert T-shirts to our merchandise arsenal!
These shirts have custom-designed graphics of high quality, L and XL sizes are in stock now. You can order any size you want through A&M Releases.
The new shirts will be available for purchase at our next show, the open air night in Beer-Sheva, so there's another reason to show up for you!

Stay extreme, Desert band!

Hail headbangers!

One hot summer's night, metal will be blasting all over the town while we crank the kilowatts up to make your heads go bang!

Join us July 19th at the Amphitheatre (Herzl 12, "Merkaz ha-Zairim" - Beer-Sheva's old city). Gates open at 19:00 sharp. It's an Open Air!

This time we've teamed up with Salvation, one of the oldest Goth metal bands in Israel, to bring you proper celebration of Desert's 5 years old Birthday.

Our production unit A&M Releases and Salvation's RockLab put together the most furious dark metal show you can imagine, and that's why famous and totally insane drummer Matan Shmueli (Stella Maris, Distorted, Azazel) is joining us to take over the drum throne and kick the sh!t out of the subwoofers! Strident (old school thrash) are also helping out to make sure you aren't keeping your sanity that night!

Entrance fee is 30 NIS (25 NIS if you pre-order), there are organized trips avaiable from the Northern and Central Israel.

A&M promised to provide special birthday discount on the merchandise, so be sure to grab some extra cash for CD's and shirts!

We are counting days till the show.. The madness has begun - it goes live!

Two new videos from the last gig were uploaded to the media section.
Its "Sacred Throne" and the brand new song called "Release Me".

You can check these here.

Enjoy and stay heavy...
DESERT

The band thanks all the metalheads who had the guts to jump into metal madness and came to Desert's album launch last thursday, feb. 1st.

It was truly amazing to play for such a crazy crowd, the band went insane and delievered as fierce playing as humanly possible.
The energy was about to blast the place!

Desert also wants to thank Matan Shmueli, who kicked the crap out of the drums and rocked with the band on stage, bands Edgend and Requiem for Dawn for giving all they had to offer (and this was alot!)

Huge thanx to Guy Nakash (Salvation,Metalist) for helping with tech stuff at the gig, and Felius (Arafel), who was responsible for running perfect lights for dark epic metal show!

Also thanx to Koltura sound crew and Or Musman for taking care of tech aspects for Desert's album launch.

Pictures from the show here

Stay heavy, Alexey, Oleg, Max S, Vadim, Max B.

Desert was inited to appear on air of nationwide-broadcasting station, the 89.1 FM!
Alexei Raymar and Max Shafranski will visit the studio this friday to take part in live metal broadcast one hour long!

The shedule includes an interview, as well as putting brand new tracks from "Prophecy..." on air.

You will have a great opportunity to hear the band's comments on Thursday's Prophecy of the Madman launch show (check out the "live dates" section of the site!)

So don't miss it - tune your stereos to 89.1FM this friday, Feb 2nd, 15.00-16.00 hrs to find out whether your FM reciever can handle this heavy metal blast!

Stay insanely heavy!

Desert's lead singer Alexei Raymar was recently interviewed by Metalist's writer, Alon Myasnikov.
You can check the outcome of conversation on magazine's web site www.metalist.co.il
Alexei talks about newest dark power metal album "Prophecy of the Madman", Desert's live activity, and shares thoughts about local heavy/power metal scene.
You can also read a brief story of Desert's way to honor, told by the band's frontman.

Check out the magazine's web site often for updates on Desert and other metal warriors who rock with us!

Stay extreme!

It's been only few weeks since Desert's brand new record hit the metal scene, and already magazines from all over the world put out their reviews on latest dark power metal tracks around!

Metal Observer has published a long review in English, so fans from any corner of the world can read what Canadian metal heads think of "Prophecy..."

PowerMetal.de tries to keep up the pace, so they wrote a review too.
Unfortunately for most of you, it is in German. You can still read it using any online translation engine you choose.
Hey, I've read it, so you can do it too!

Finally, Layla.co.il published a brief one in Hebrew.

If you find more reviews we don't know about - write us.

Stay metal, and check in for more soon!

Hail metalheads!

We are finally announcing the date for our next Tel Aviv show.

The metal will be played heavy and sharp in Koltura Club (Herzl st. 154 gates open at 20:00), at February first.
Edgend (beautiful and heavy Progressive Metal) and Requiem for Dawn (Hardcore/Progressive Metal) are gonna be joining us to make the night even more extreme.

Unfortunately, our drummer Max Balagula won't be able to rock with us that night, but we are helped out by Matan Shmueli (Distorted, Azazel, Moonskin), known for his explosive sound, who will take over the drum throne. Dont get too upset, coz I assure you - Matan will blast the f**k out of the drumset as furiously as Max does.

Entrance fee is 50NIS.
Our new album CD's will be sold at the location, and A&M even mentioned a discount, so bring some extra cash for these and for beer!

We're all set to go and can't wait to hit the TA stage to deliever fierce heavy metal experience.

The madness has begun - it goes live!