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Elder — Reflections of a Floating World

Elder — Reflections of a Floating World

  Elder — Reflections of a Floating World (June 2nd, 2017)Elder — Reflections of a Floating World (June 2nd, 2017)»•  Elder is a three~piece heavy psych band hailing from Boston, USA. Their lengthy songs are told as stories, unfolding and undulating across genre boundaries and into new kosmische territory.
»•  The power of Reflections of a Floating World lies in Elder’s ability to lay plans and consistently execute them to maximum effect. Lore saw the band experimenting far more than before with psychedelia and progressive rock, bringing a new mode of understanding the cross between oddity and homage that brought out the best in two different genres built on the monolithic worship of its primogenitors. This new outing sees them bringing the best of everything they’ve done before to the forefront of their sound, understanding their own past just as much as the past of their various genres. »•  Fusing the future and past so fluidly, and synthesizing a sound entirely their own through it, Reflections of a Floating World sets a new standard for both originality and execution in the world of stoner music and, in the process, once again transports its listeners to a world wholly of Elder’s creation.  WRITTEN BY EDEN KUPERMINTZ ON JUNE 1, 2017                                                                                
Location: New Bedford, MA
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Rock, Stoner Rock, Doom Metal
Album release: June 2nd, 2017
Record Label: Stickman Records and Armageddon shop.
Duration:     64:26
Tracks:
1. Sanctuary     11:14
2. The Falling Veil     11:13
3. Staving Off Truth     10:18
4. Blind     13:24
5. Sonntag     8:40
6. Thousand Hands     9:37
Personnel:
•  Nicholas DiSalvo — Guitar, keys, vocals
•  Jack Donovan — Bass
•  Matt Couto — Drums
•  Michael Risberg — Guitar
•  Michael Samos — Pedal steel
Companies, etc.
»•  Recorded at — Sonelab
»•  Mixed at — Sonelab
»•  Pressed by — GZ Media — 154885
Credits
»•  Artwork by — Adrian Dexter
»•  Mastered by — Carl Saff
»•  Recorded, Mixed by — Justin Pizzoferrato 
Additional information
»•  Elder’s fourth full~length album. Long, undulating and dense tracks float between psychedelic passages and progressive rock without missing a beat; adventurous and unpredictable songs are punctuated by hypnotic jams, all colored by the tendency toward melody and dynamism that has become the band’s hallmark. In keeping with their motto of expanding upon their repertoire, guest musicians Mike Risberg and Michael Samos joined the core three in the studio to add extra guitar, keys and pedal steel, adding vibrancy and lushness to the album. In all regards, Reflections shows a band with a clear vision honing their skills with every year.
Review
By Ben Salmon | June 2, 2017 | 10:42am | Score: 8.8
»•  There are plenty of heavy bands in the world. Bands that set their amps to shudder and riff into oblivion. Bands with excavation crews instead of rhythm sections. Bands that bring thunder down to Earth.
»•  But there are few bands out there that feel like they come upon their heaviness as naturally as Elder, the young Boston~based quartet that has quietly built a killer catalog over the past decade. Their brand of heavy psych~rock feels denser and more decisive than most of their contemporaries. It feels carved out of a mountainside. The band’s core — guitarist/vocalist Nick DiSalvo, bassist Jack Donovan and drummer Matt Couto — have been making music with a laser focus on high~quality songcraft.
»•  The result is noticeable artistic growth. Elder steadied itself on its 2008 self~titled debut, then started shedding some of its stoner~rock scowl on 2011’s Dead Roots Stirring. The band’s third album, however, was a revelation. On 2015’s Lore, Elder increased the intricacy of its playing, flexed its psych and prog muscles and evolved into a behemoth of a band that can be both heavy and melodic as effortlessly as most people salt and pepper their food.                                                                                             »•  On their new album Reflections of a Floating World, Elder pushes even further outward from their gnarled roots. Four of the album’s six songs stretch past the 10~minute mark; “Sonntag” is the shorty of the bunch at 8:39. The long run~times give Elder plenty of space to wander, as evidenced by opening track “Sanctuary,” which transitions from buzzy crunchbomb (for about three minutes) to space~traveling guitar~sologasm (for another couple minutes) to quietly gorgeous interlude and back to crunchbomb again in time for a skyscraping finale.
»•  This is Elder’s specialty. They build and build and build, exploring with confidence even when it means they must follow instinct rather than a beaten path. The first 90 seconds of “The Falling Veil” pulsates gently before the song mushrooms into a ragged rock jam, which then gives way to a coda threaded with a string arrangement. “Staving Off Truth” chugs heavy for half its 10 minutes, then shifts into a swirl of chimes and swoops and a proggy bridge. On “Blind,” DiSalvo dusts off his keyboard, while “Sonntag” is an experiment in Krautrock. Here’s hoping they go further down that rabbit hole on the next LP.
»•  But that’s looking too far ahead. For now, let’s appreciate this under~appreciated band for what it is: One of the very best heavy rock attacks on the planet. One that makes it look so incredibly easy, when, in fact, it’s not easy at all.
»•  https://www.pastemagazine.com/
Also:
WRITTEN BY EDEN KUPERMINTZ ON JUNE 1, 2017  |
»•  http://www.heavyblogisheavy.com/2017/06/01/elder-reflections-of-a-floating-world/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elderofficial/
Bandcamp: https://beholdtheelder.bandcamp.com/album/reflections-of-a-floating-world
Label: https://www.stickman-records.com/
Shop: http://www.armageddonshop.com/                                                                  
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Elder — Reflections of a Floating World

ALBUM COVERS XI.