Perhaps no sub-genre of heavy music had as big a year a doom. That is not a statement one makes lightly with all the incredible releases and new bands popping up all the time. Like a great cheese, doom is best with age, proper flavor-mixing, and the right cultures. The maturity of both bands and the scene itself has birthed a great era of new music in 2017. One of the hotbeds for the doom scene in America is New England, where the bitter winters and a deep connection to nature have seen a lot of bands reach for greatness. Elder, from Massachusetts, is one of those bands, and their new album Reflections Of A Floating World (Stickman Records) is a testament to this.
Having to follow-up the beloved Lore album, Elder had their work cut out for them. But they came right back swinging with a another progressive flavored masterpiece in Reflections Of A Floating World. Vast sounding, but unpretentious, the album layers textures and riffs like a never-ending game of musical Tetris. Sure, the hallmarks of the band and their deep roots in doom will never die, so don’t fret, they haven’t sold-out or changed too much on this one. However, by challenging themselves to bond new ways of storytelling in their music, they keep rewarding you on repeat listens. Every time I jam this album, I hear a new layer to peel back and inspect, and enjoy.
Not unlike their brethren like YOB and Spirit Adrift, Elder has broken some new ground by creating kind of an inner space – a headroom in their songcraft for you to experience. Surely, the band has never thought about this too deeply, they just create and do things. But to the listener, this is well beyond stoner rock, doom or even typical tropes of prog. This is next level heavy, and not just heavy in your ears, but in your soul too.
From the opening storm of ‘Sanctuary’, the swirling licks on ‘The Falling Veil’, to the wash of moods on ‘Blind’; the album just gives and gives. When you think to yourself that they can not top the previous track, they do. Dirgey riffs, heartfelt words, uplifting keyboards, slick solos, and Nick Disalvo’s wailing vocals blanket each song.
Arguably the best work to date, by one of the crucial bands in American heavy music right now.
9.0/10
KEITH CHAHCHKES