Elder – “Through Zero”

Blues Funeral Recordings

The announcement of a new Elder album could not have come at a more perfect time for me, as I’ve recently been spending countless hours searching for more melodic doom metal and heavy prog to underscore my mundane routines. The Massachusetts band is nearly 20 years into their career and already has a couple of genre classics under their belt, like 2015’s Lore and 2017’s Reflections of a Floating World. Now their seventh album, Through Zero, will be released in just a couple of months on May 29th, arriving almost four years after their previous LP Innate Passage, which was their most spaced-out and sonically expansive project to date. Elder are masters of progressive and psychedelic doom and stoner metal, akin to Baroness, Monolord, or Pallbearer, and this new title track, “Through Zero,” is the next excellent taste of their capabilities.

This nine-minute suite, layered with one swirling passage after another, is one of just six compositions on Elder’s upcoming record, not uncommon territory for bands of this style. “Through Zero” establishes the atmosphere from the moment it begins, kicking off with immediately gripping, locked-in riffage before the first vocals come in at around 90 seconds. Singer, guitarist, and founding member Nick DiSalvo’s voice rests peacefully in the midst of the bright and beaming instrumentation, which builds to an almost arena-prog peak after the first verse.

Elder is rooted in the unconventional songwriting structures of classic progressive music like Yes or King Crimson, but they don’t sacrifice accessibility in exchange. Despite the lengthy track time and the multiple, distinct movements within it, “Through Zero” is a track that is as easy to follow as it is to get lost in. No prog-metal blast beats, no Zappa-esque, impossible-to-comprehend passages, but enough moments to stay fully entranced throughout. From the three unique verses, the instrumental breaks that surround them, all the way to the opening riff callback towards the end, this is a powerfully promising teaser for Elder’s next opus this Spring.