Elder is a young band from America that plays a doom/ sludge/ stoner hybrid. This self titled album is their debut and it’s a pretty impressive slice of music as far as debuts go.

The band seem to take most of their influences from the mighty triumvirate of Sabbath, Sleep and Electric Wizard and when your primary influences come from those three bands you really can’t go wrong. It’s a bit pointless to talk about stand out tracks in an album that has only 5 songs and these songs flow into each other quite nicely. Still, it’s the mid album monster Riddle of Steel Pt.1 that really stands out and makes an impression. It has a Sleep meets Electric Wizard vibe happening that is quite heavy and also oozes cool.

Elder is also backed up by the fact that the three fellows in the band can really play their instruments. Nick Disalvo’s guitar playing is fluid and the man has enough chops to really pull off some catchy guitar lines which are not very common in the whole stoner doom field. He’s backed up very ably by the rhythm section of Jack Donovan and Matt Couto both of whom are rock solid and again display some very welcome inventiveness in their playing styles. The vocals remind me a bit of Matt Pike but I think sometimes it tends to overpower the music and is a bit too loud in the mix. Also, the transition from kickass groovy riffs to soaring lead guitar mayhem is a little abrupt and sloppy even if both those sections are great on their own.

All in all, I’d say that Elder are a very promising band. They are a little derivative and wear their influences on their sleeves but that is countered by solid musicianship and some very cool songwriting. This is an album that’s well worth checking out and Elder is a band that I’m going to keep an eye on because they are off to a pretty good start and I get the feeling these fellows are only going to get better with time.



Label - Meteor City
Year of Release - 2008