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Elder – Omens (Armageddon)

April 23, 2020 by A.S. Van Dorston

It’s been an interesting week for releases. Despite the fact that the flow of new releases has only barely slowed down, with some artists and labels choosing to delay releases until later in the year, people seem starved for content. But with no shortage of great new music, what they’re really craving is excitement. Last week’s release of Fiona Apple’s latest wasn’t a surprise, but it had been moved up from August, and there had been absolutely no leaks or streams I was aware of, so everyone, critics and fans, got to listen to it for the first time at the same time. With the quarantine, the album reflecting her own pre-pandemic self quarantine, recording it mostly in her house, contributed to a pretty cool communal experience. The totally surprising release of X’s eighth album on Wednesday was also an event, though for a much smaller community of crusty old punks.

Elder’s Omens has been floating about for months for reviewers, so the reveal experience is different. Nevertheless, for the psych prog and heavy fuzz worshippers, it’s most certainly a highly anticipated event, coming three years after their masterpiece Reflections Of a Floating World (2017). The live in the studio instrumental space jams on last year’s The Gold & Silver Sessions EP was an exciting indicator that the band is continuing to explore new territories. Most fans will find the fifth full-length satisfies their itch for the sprawling virtuosity they’ve always loved, while some will be perplexed by aspects of their evolution.

First off, there’s lineup changes, with new drummer Georg Edert, and guitarist/keyboardist Michael Risberg now a permanent fourth member. With both Risberg and leader Nick DiSalvo playing analog synthesizers, the fact that they also brought in guest Italian multi-instrumentalist Fabio Cuomo and his Fender Rhodes might set off squelchy, electronic alarm signals that Elder is going to do a Tame Impala and go all electropop. Thankfully that’s not the case, though the title track does kick off the album with a brief Rhodes/synth duet for 35 seconds until the crunching guitars come in. These keyboards have more in common with early 70s kosmische bands Tangerine Dream and Cluster, which makes sense as Elder has been based in Berlin for many years. The chance of them forsaking guitars was unlikely, and on Omens the keyboards add welcome layers of color and texture for an incremental update in sound rather than a complete retooling. It’s especially reassuring when DiSalvo engages in some shredding, showing his guitar chops are as sharp as ever.

Another incremental change that’s been niggling at the back of my mind during early listens of this album. Some of the more expressionist clean-toned guitar parts and raw, untreated vocals that are more up front in the mix rather than the anguished wails of a man cut adrift in his spacesuit outside the pod made me think, has Nick been listening to indie rock? It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, mainly burly post-hardcore, noise and math rock along the lines of Bitch Magnet, Unwound, Polvo, Rodan, and Shellac, who their producer Peter Deimel had worked with, along with Motorpsycho. All those bands made some powerful music, a big influence on later post-rock bands. Sure enough, DiSalvo did recently mention having a hardcore phase, and cited the slowcore indie of Low and Idaho as influences (as well as Motorpsycho, Dungen, Colour Haze and Bo Hansson).

I like the sounds of all those influences, and have no problem with the progression of vocals from more standard doom wails. Some of course may have a problem with it, especially those who would prefer Elder be an instrumental band like the last EP. Even Reflections Of A Floating World seemingly had vocals on less than 5% of the playtime. The percentage is upped here to at least 10%, particularly on “In Procession” and the first half of “Embers.” To my ears, the balance is just right, the melodicism of DiSalvo’s vocals transitioning to lighter moments of ethereal instrumental beauty from the six to eight and a half minute mark. In contrast, when they hit those harder riffs, they carry the impact of some of Opeth’s best moments.

“Halcyon” and closer “One Light Retreating” also make great use of delicate passages that make the heavy parts feel heavier. As the final guitar chord fades, I’m left satisfied but not exhausted, ready to go back and listen again, lost in a pair of massive headphones* (few of us have the place to ourselves at any point during these stay-at-home orders and don’t have the luxury to shake the walls with the loudspeakers). While the band may no longer provide full-body massages through sheer volume like they did on Dead Roots Stirring (2011) and Spires Burn EP (2012), those missing unrelenting heaviness have literally thousands of bands to fall back on.

I admire how the band remain geeky fans of unfashionable, obscure Scandinavian psych prog both old (Bo Hansson) and contemporary (Anekdoten, Needlepoint), but also continues composing adventurous new music that remains undeniably Elder, and empirically brilliant. Given the relatively minor role vocals played previously, it’s worth mentioning that this is a concept album about the rise and fall of a fictional civilization that has all too many things in common with our own.

Carrying the voiceless in a hope
And a hope within a sound
Burning down to ash to disappear
Without a trace upon the ground

Album of the year so far.

*I listened to Omens over a dozen times while writing this review with my brand new pair of ZMF Vérité Closed limited edition leopardwood version headphones. Review coming soon.

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