Review by Daniel for Elder - Dead Roots Stirring (2011)
I first discovered Massachusetts-based stoner metal trio Elder while programming the monthly The Fallen playlists a couple of years ago & was invariably impressed by what I heard. They sounded like a very capable & professional outfit that knew their way around their instruments & had a very well-defined sound. I subsequently investigated their 2012 “Spires Burn/Release” E.P. in order to get a better idea of what they’re all about & found it to be a very solid release indeed. 2017’s “Reflections of a Floating World” would follow shortly afterwards & would leave a similar impression so I quickly found myself claiming myself as a fan of the band. And this leads me to this month’s The Fallen feature release in Elder’s 2011 sophomore album “Dead Roots Stirring” which I selfishly selected in order to further expand my knowledge of Elder’s back catalogue.
“Dead Roots Stirring” is a 51 minute excursion across five lengthy tracks that all offer something a little different from each other while always maintain a clear direction & focus. Unlike “Spires Burn/Release” which sat roughly at the mid-point between stoner metal & stoner rock, this record sees Elder staying firmly on the stoner rock side of the equation &, despite what you may read elsewhere, there’s really very little metal to be found here. There’s simply far too much blues in both the tone & structure of the five songs included & I’d suggest that the band’s influences come mainly from late 60’s/early 70’s blues rock bands like Cream more than they do metal bands like Black Sabbath. Don’t take that as any sort of negative though because this music still has plenty in the tank in the way of classy rock music. The production job is well-executed & gives Elder an authentic 60’s/70’s vibe that also plays a major part in steering the album away from metal. It’s got that lovely fuzzy sound with a dirty distortion on the guitars that feeds very nicely into the more psychedelic moments which are a real highlight of the record. The bass tone is full & powerful which does a great job at selling the doomier moments where the band finally click into overdrive. You won’t find much in the way of the more ambitious progressive rock sounds that can be found on “Reflections of a Floating World” here as yet but that’s not to say that this is simple music with the song structures still being quite expansive & building over time with twelve minute closer “Knot” being a prime example given that it doesn’t really show you its full hand until the last third of the song.
The best material tends to come at the start of the tracklisting with opener “Gemini” (my album highlight) & the lengthy title track being my personal favourites but there isn’t a lot of variation in quality between the various songs with only fourth track “The End” seeing things dipping just a touch. In saying that though, I’m not sure this style of music will ever command my higher scores unless it heads into psychedelic territory more often than Elder do here. Front man Nick DiSalvo has a great voice for this style of music & he does hint at some really great vocal hooks that may have the potential to take things higher up into the stratosphere but it never quite eventuates & the album is much more focused on lengthy instrumental passages anyway. This isn’t intended as a major criticism though as I’ve found it hard to fault Elder on ANY of the three releases I’ve checked out to date. They’re a class act who understand their craft really well & are very unlikely to dish up something subpar.
If you’re a fan of stoner rock then you’ll definitely want to check out “Dead Roots Stirring”. I’d suggest that it’s probably the weaker of the three Elder releases mentioned above with the progressive stoner rock sounds of “Reflections of a Floating World” remaining my personal favourite but don't take that as a negative comment because it’s still a great record that’s provided me with further encouragement to continue investigating this talented artist’s back catalogue.
For fans of Om, Stoned Jesus & Acid King.