Elder

About

Elder started out as a Massachusetts doom and stoner rock outfit, but the band's sound has drifted pretty far from those heavy, Sleep referencing roots. By the time Lore came out in 2015, progressive rock textures had crept in, and Reflections of a Floating World pushed that further still, landing at number five on Rolling Stone's best metal albums of 2017. These days the whole band is based in Berlin, which led directly to their 2021 collaborative album with German psych rockers Kadavar, a project born out of pandemic era tour cancellations. What makes Elder genuinely interesting is how they use length as a tool rather than a habit. Nick DiSalvo, who writes most of the material, has said he simply has no talent for short songs, and the records make a convincing case for that approach. Heavy grooves, pentatonic riffs, and layers of melodic guitar work give the songs real momentum across their often ten plus minute runtimes. Their seventh studio album Through Zero, recorded at Big Snuff Studio in Berlin, runs close to an hour and is described by the band as their longest studio production yet.