ELDER: Innate Passage (PROGRESSIVE ROCK,Stoner): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Elder has been following a surprising trajectory for sixteen years now. At the beginning, they were a pure stoner doom band, with hairy skin and thick, tanned leather. But the more the years go by and the more the Americans head towards progressive shores. At the end, there is not much left of the robust stoner of the beginnings, except perhaps this psychedelic humus covering the base of compositions always so epic.

Certainly, there will be some purists to say that Elder is not part of their closed circle. However, from guitarist Nick DiSalvo's voice, clearer and more moving than ever, to these keyboard orgies that Yes of the 70's would not disavow, it's hard to deny the quartet this label. And it's an understatement to say that "Innate Passage" insists even more than "Omens" (2020) in this evolution.

What strikes you when listening to this record is first of all its great purity. Purity of a clear and warm sound recording which lets each instrument express itself, grow, invade the space, witness the epicenter of 'Endless Return' where bass and drums impart a hypnotic tempo. Purity again of these five pieces whose abundant richness is equalled only by the fluidity of their progression which flows with an admirable delicacy. Comfortable, the listening takes place in a muffled atmosphere that does not however forbid some sometimes more supported features ('Merged In Dreams - Ne Plus Ultra'). Purity finally of these instruments (vocals included) which compete of quietude. Even the drums sound with an astonishing peaceful softness ('Coalescence') that underline the unctuous layers of Mellotron.

Of course, the length of the songs (between eight and fourteen minutes on average) offers a framework favourable to an instrumental expression which blooms and flowers in a bouquet of colors and fragrances but never the virtuosity of the group stifles neither the beauty nor the emotion of a score which on the contrary shines of a deceptive simplicity. The result is a bewitching work whose fertile inspiration finds in the inaugural 'Catastasis' the most beautiful and pure synthesis, that is to say almost eleven minutes of happiness where fragile vocal lines, keyboards as tender as generous, guitars all at once pointillist or racy and silky rhythmic merge in a magma at the same time bewitching and knotty.

"Innate Passage" is Elder's most progressive album. As one of the most orgasmic too, this probably explains it... - Official website

ELDER

INNATE PASSAGE

AUTRE LABEL

PROGRESSIVE ROCK