The Hard Rock Thread
Vinnie Moore - "Meltdown" (1991)
I picked up Vinnie Moore's third album on CD shortly after it was released given that I was a big fan of his 1986 debut album "Mind's Eye". "Meltdown" saw Vinnie changing direction a bit with a record that's a lot more hard rock than it is metal but it still made quite an impact on this young shredder as there's little doubt that Moore understood the art of song-writing as well as any in his craft i.e. instrumental guitar shred. Time hasn't been as kind to "Meltdown" as I'd hoped though & I see it as a step down from "Mind's Eye" these days but it's definitely still worth a listen if you're into this sort of thing.
3.5/5
Dear GOD the last reply to this was in 2023! Time to change that.
Elder - Innate Passage (2022)
Genres: Stoner Rock, Heavy Psych, Prog Rock
It's about time I finished up those other Elder albums of recent times. We've got a new album out this week and I wanna see how it does against the other more progressive outtings. They're a band I always liked, and one I tend to look forward to, but I missed the last album and forgot about it. This is that last album. I was expecting good things at bare minimum, and amazing things in pure fantasy considering it's supposed to have more range. But while the reviews are great, they're kind low in comparison to the classics. So, what did I end up getting?
Catastasis was just the surreal post-rockist intro I needed to get the back of my mind kicking and screaming for more. With this one, the band exhibited a constant sense of wonder while displaying some pride at their abilities to drive through every surreality a melodic prog psych song would allow. But pride would take the foreground with their next epic and only single for the album: Endless Return. Designated as a metal track around the internet, it brings back the sound of Lore but with more energy and fun, as if all we need to do now is jam. Coalescense gives us some of that with a noisier touch, but also gives us time to relax with some coffee and listen to a freaking violin. Due to the careful multilayering, one's able to hear every little intricacy, and be even more surprised when something unpredictable comes along. And our singer's voice matches up well with this higher tone and extra layers. And when it gets noisy, it's less like a mistake and more like the album is making a game out of finding things in the rainstorm, or a sandstorm, or both at once.
Next comes Merged in Dreams - Ne Plus Ultra. "Is it two songs rolled in one? It IS 14 minutes." That's what I thought at first, and was both excited and cautiously optimistic about it. I really loved how chill and long the intro was, nearing two minutes of sci-fi sounds and mellow guitars before jumping right into the most metallic riffs Elder had done in years, and I'm talking crazy riffage here. Honestly, this track shows masterful handling of both careful building between chill and metallic as well as abrupt 180's. And the switch from heard-hitting prog rock to quiet prog electronic backdrops 10 minutes in feels nothing short of appropriate for an outro to such exhuberant and maybe even exhausting activity. Forget the previous cup of coffee. Here's the goddamn jacuzzi for a couple minutes. Now back to the metallic guitars to end it all. :P. And finally, the album ends with The Purpose, transitioning from the previous track. This finally takes many elements of the last track with more balance, less abrupt shifting, a slower pace and a more contemplative tone. This goes on through the whole, reviving the post-rock behavior of the opener, which I was hoping would return. And in the end, the shortest track became a grand finale where the band lost none of their flow, luster, etc.
This album boasts a number of new strengths for the band. Firstly, they're willing to explore the maximum potential of any one sound they tackle, and how far they can venture for some time before coming back. This is way more impressive that those only seconds-long occasional ventured into other areas that bands like Blood Incantation do to spice songs up, which worked for most on Absolute Everywhere but needed expansion for me personally. But the best thing about the album is that it's always active. Much like in my recent review for the new Boards of Canada, this album is just like Inferno in multiple ways: it's always finding something to do, everything flows beautifully, the dynamics are perfectly done and it sucks you into various worlds.
And now for another of my gleefully but casually unconventional opinions: this is both my personal favorite Elder album and my personal choice for their best. I would honestly say that this level of creativity is as perfectly balanced and produced as many other like albums in that vein such as Worry by Jeff Rosenstock, Are Yoiu Shpongled and other albums that revolutionized various genres. And while the extra lack of metal and change in sound may seem alienating to some more hardcore Elder fans, I personally consider this an amazing new take on the genres they've worked towards and pioneered. I mean, I defend Fear Inoculum since Tool's been going from an alt-metal band to a prog rock band with each album. This is my new #1 for stoner rock and heavy psych, as well as a new top 100 of all time entry and my new #2 for 2022, behind Ants From Up There by Black Country New Road and overtaking Miracles in Transit by Naked Flames.
100
Dear GOD the last reply to this was in 2023!
That's because I started a generic Rock thread since then & have been posting all rock-related posts there.
Dear GOD the last reply to this was in 2023!
That's because I started a generic Rock thread since then & have been posting all rock-related posts there.
I know about that thread, but still, I figured Elder belonged elsewhere.