The word "epic" is overused, but how else do you describe five 10-minute tracks of heavy doom rock? Omens is more of an extended jam session, with the four dudes of Elder playing off each other's musicality, never getting ahead of themselves or losing the plot. There are dynamics in songs like "In Procession" or "Embers", but most of Omens is content to sit back and let the riffs take them where they will.
Elder's long song lengths will surely keep them out of the mainstream, but Omens could go toe-to-toe with most modern rock bands in terms of catchiness and originality. The key is to take it in stages. "Halcyon", the album's centrepiece, starts with a Mogwai-esque ambience before morphing into an airy sludge rock song like Russian Circles meets Mastodon. Guitarist Nicolas DiSalvo's vocals are sparse, which really lets the huge runtimes soar by.
People complain that our attention spans are diminishing in the modern age. That may be true, but bands like Elder show that it's still good to slow down and take some time to enjoy things once in a while.
(Armageddon Shop)Elder's long song lengths will surely keep them out of the mainstream, but Omens could go toe-to-toe with most modern rock bands in terms of catchiness and originality. The key is to take it in stages. "Halcyon", the album's centrepiece, starts with a Mogwai-esque ambience before morphing into an airy sludge rock song like Russian Circles meets Mastodon. Guitarist Nicolas DiSalvo's vocals are sparse, which really lets the huge runtimes soar by.
People complain that our attention spans are diminishing in the modern age. That may be true, but bands like Elder show that it's still good to slow down and take some time to enjoy things once in a while.