Elder – Omens
April 24th, 2020
Progressive / Psychedelic Rock
Armageddon Label
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Elder is a band that’s been on my radar as a group that I knew I would have to check out eventually due to being lumped in with other bands such as Boris and Earth and many other of those one-word-noun type bands present in the stoner rock world. Yet it took me until their 2020 record Omens, the fifth record in their discography, to really give them the time of day, and honestly I regret that. If Omens is any indicator of what their past work is like I’ve been missing out big time.
Omens is only five tracks long but those five tracks reach 55 minutes in total length, which immediately let me know that this is an album and a band for fans of long ass songs with numerous passages and musical ideas present in each one of them. These tracks feel like massive progressive journeys similar to those taken by the famous prog rock legends of yore like King Crimson or Yes, but with an updated modern sound, way heavier guitars and better production value.
From the very beginning the title track dazzles you with beautiful synths, provided by keyboardist Mike Risberg, that arpeggiate up and down like a series of rainbows forming one after the other in the wake of a summer rainstorm. The guitars, also done in part by Risberg as well as Nick DiSalvo, are heavy and in your face but will often take a back seat to create atmospheric segments of reverb-drenched beauty that serve to hypnotize the listener into a deep dream. While the guitars and synths swirl together, the thick tone of the bass, provided by Jack Donovan, beefs up the mixture, creating a wall of sound type of effect that stays true on this record from beginning to end.
While many moments on this record do straddle that line between ‘quieter’ atmospheric moments and slow, plodding, heavy riffage, there are still plenty of moments where the band gets way flashier than you’d expect. The last several minutes of “Omens” comprise some great guitar soloing, and a very proggy breakdown moment that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Dream Theater album. Drummer Georg Edert, who is a new addition to the band following the departure long-time drummer Matt Couto in 2019, shines through in these moments, creating flashy fills on the toms and smashing the crash cymbals as hard as he can.
The synths and other electronic elements do stand out to me as the most ear-catching moments on this record. For example, “Omens” contains some very beautiful string sections, and while I can’t tell if they’re real strings or produced through a high quality synthesizer, it almost doesn’t matter simply due to how good they sound in context of everything else going on instrumentally. The track “In Procession”, contains some really great synth work that reminds me heavily of the band Sahg. While the song starts off with some pretty, atmospheric synths, they quickly become more complicated and intricate, complementing the guitars and bass during the instrumental segments and drifting over the mix with ethereal beauty during the verses.
Guitarist DiSalvo doubles as the band’s singer and frontman and I would be remiss if I did not mention his stellar vocals on this record. Despite being my first time listening to these guys I instantly would compare DiSalvo’s voice to that of Loïc Rossetti of The Ocean. The two both have this gravelly way of singing melodies that is recognizable and comparatively unique and I absolutely adore it. I’d also, to a lesser extent, compare him to John Dyer Baizley of Baroness, though DiSalvo’s voice is definitely higher than his.
A lot of the heavy prog elements on this album remind me of fellow stalwart giants in the genre like the aforementioned Baroness as well as Mastodon and even Red Fang to an extent as they’ve been to known to have a few experimental moments in their music. The album’s centerpiece “Halcyon” has some simple but very effective riffage going on during the middle part of the song which sounds similar to something Baroness might have done on Purple or what Mastodon would be doing during the current era of the career. Regardless of what you think of those comparisons it’s a style I adore and I’m happy to hear more of it, especially in Elder’s significantly more low key version of it.
Interestingly enough there are moments on here that actually remind me of synthwave artists like Perturbator or Carpenter Brut. Specifically near the end of “Halcyon” we get treated to some really pretty, ethereal synths that sound like they could have easily been ripped from the playbook of a Blood Music synthwave project. I suppose this falls in line with the wave of 80’s retro nostalgia we’ve been experiencing in the last decade, and honestly I’m okay with that. It sounds badass and the more of it we get the better.
With “Embers” we get some more interesting guitar work as DiSalvo and Risberg play these off-time chugging patterns almost like a stonier / doomier version of a metalcore riff. It sounds great in this context, especially with the lead guitar adding some atmospheric strings over it and combined with the synths. This song by far has some of the best riffage on the entire record and stands out as, in my opinion, the most memorable song on the album.
My only issues with this record are that at some point the songs do drag on a bit too long for me. For example the first three minutes of “Halcyon” do feel a bit like an extended jam session that isn’t really leading up to anything, and it can be a bit much at times. Aside from that some of these songs’ more atmospheric sections can get a little samey here and there, leading me to forget that the tracklist has even gone from one song to the next or that maybe the album has started over without me noticing. Despite these drawbacks however, Omens is still a fabulous record.
As my first true deep dive into the discography of Elder I can say that this album has thoroughly impressed me. This combination of progressive structures and writing with doom metal, stoner rock and psychedelic instrumentation is exactly the kind of interesting mixture I’ve been looking for in this genre and I can’t believe it took me this long to get into it. Elder is a fantastic band and if you like any of the bands I mentioned in the paragraphs above this record is for you.
Final Verdict: 9/10
Awesome
Favourite Tracks:
“Omens”
“In Procession”
“Embers”
~ Akhenaten
Where Strides The Behemoth? 