### Elder: Dead roots stirring

#### 17/10/11 || gk

Elder’s self titled 2008 debut was a solid if slightly derivative album that hinted at a very promising future and showcased the musical chops of this young British trio with guitarist Mike DiSalvo in particular coming in for some well deserved praise. The music was the usual Sabbath meets Electric Wizard stoner doom style but what made me sit up and take notice was the interplay between the three musicians and the fact that the band was unafraid to let it rip.

Now, 3 years later, Elder is back with “Dead Roots Stirring” and its almost like the band has mellowed in the time between the debut and this second album. The opening song, “Gemini” starts proceedings with a distinct Colourhaze feel to its laid back jam approach and the band goes in a more psychedelic rock vein than the stoner doom of old. It’s a long song with a well executed solo around the halfway mark but nothing spectacular. Title song “Dead Roots Stirring” follows the same template except that it starts out like something Dead Meadow would do and is even longer. “III” is the pick of the five songs here and while being another long jam it does have a distinctive and memorable acoustic melody at its heart.

The songs on “Dead Roots Stirring” are long and the band seems content to jam along in a laid back manner. I’m not sure if most of this can even be called metal because while the band employ a fair use of fuzz and distortion, the music just isn’t very heavy. Still, music doesn’t have to be heavy all the time to be good but it’s the same story through out the album. Long songs, meandering jams, the occasional good lead and generally a sense that the band has dropped Sabbath and Electric Wizard as their chief songwriting influences and are now determined to fall somewhere between Colourhaze and the Elektrohasch roster with an occasional nod to 60s hard rock. Unfortunately, this change in direction does not work for the band. The songs rarely reach a climax, too often content to simply jam along for ten plus minutes at a time and it very quickly settles into a background drone where the songs have no individuality and nothing really sicks in your mind when the album’s done.

There’s no doubt that the three members of Elder are good musicians. There are ideas here that, with a little bit of tweaking, could have turned out great but Elder just seem content to jam on and on and the result is an album that fails to deliver and is just meandering and soon becomes a fuzzy drone in the background. Disappointing and a definite slump in comparison to the debut.

- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: MeteorCity
- Website: Elder MySpace
- Band
- Nick DiSalvo: guitars, keyboards, vocals
- Jack Donovan: bass
- Matt Couto: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Gemini
- 02. Dead Roots Stirring
- 03. III
- 04. The End
- 05. Knot