It isn’t enough to imbibe the heavy-slung paeans to Sabbath these days without meandering off into labyrinthine progressive odes that have you wondering where the next musical turn will take you.
On one hand there are the Mastodons of the world that go full-throttle via sludge metal, but on the other hand are bands like this Boston three-piece who, rather than opt for full-on progressive doom like Pallbearer, have loosened up the sound, giving it pace and brightness.
Losing the caustic element of past albums, Lore is a forward-thinking composition across five lengthy epics, heavily weighted on shoegaze – that is to say, plenty of cymbal crashes and pensive moments – but not without a concentration of exhilarating riffs.
Moving between elongated instrumental sections of progressive-sounding guitar work such as on the title track, or Deadweight’s intro of disorientating tumble and chime and stoner-drenched layered vocals, this feels like a jam more than a collection of dip-in-and-out songs that allows you to fully immerse yourself in Elder’s hard/soft dynamics./o:p
