Reflections of a Floating World, the fourth album by Massachusetts stoner/doom band Elder, is an expansive, full-sounding record. A collision of doom, psychedelic and progressive metal, Reflections swirls through layers of keyboards and guitars anchored by strong riffs.
Elder showcase those songcrafting abilities on “Staving Off Truth,” combining slow-moving, ethereal keys with guitars that both fill out and advance Elder’s far-reaching sound, rounded out by guitarist/singer Nick DiSalvo’s vocals.
“As with every album we write, Reflections sounds and feels to me like our most complete and mature group of songs to date,” DiSalvo tells Decibel. “With Lore we found the sound we had been searching for, but finally fleshed and rounded it out on the new album to where it’s perhaps even more dense and complicated, but so much more cohesive to me. In retrospect it’s amazing to me that the album does sound so cohesive given how it was written: ideas coming together in between intense tours with band members circulating between Boston, New York City and Berlin, Germany. I always feel that our music is enriched by the experiences we have in life and the past years have certainly given us plenty of fuel for that, be it travel or just the general wear and tear from the daily grind. Reflections is in that sense a series of vignettes which represent things we’ve experienced in the world, reflected in music, showing both the dark and light sides of the confusing time we’re living in.”
Reflections of a Floating World will be available through Armaggedon Label on June 2. Buy it here.
