Elder have been making spaced-out, psychedelic doom metal for nearly 20 years, which means their name is now entirely accurate. The band started in Massachusetts, but they're based in Berlin these days. Elder took what the band describes as a "sabbatical" when they finished touring behind 2022's Innate Passage, their most recent album. When they got back together, they attempted to clear out the cobwebs by working on a few fragments of music that they wrote in the time before Innate Passage. Those fragments grew into a new thing, and now Elder are releasing them as an expansive 12" single.
In their Bandcamp description for their new single, Elder write, "Meeting together in studio, we reworked the song and were surprised to see the session growing longer and longer as we jammed out into infinity. The result is a unique bit of Elder which has one foot in the past and one in the future." As the band points out, Elder's new music is really one song, and that song lasts nearly 19 minutes. The new tracks "Liminality" and "Dream State Return" flow seamlessly into one another, and they achieve the same kind of expansive, proggy liftoff that makes Elder so unique. Parts of "Liminality" are genuinely pretty, and other parts are overwhelmingly heavy. Some parts are both. It's a pleasure to let this new music just wash over you.
Elder originally planned for "Liminality" b/w "Dream State Return" to be a digital-only release, but they decided to do a vinyl version as well. They also shot a 19-minute mini-movie with director Malachi Cull. Check it out below.
"Liminality" b/w "Dream State Return" is out now on Stickman Records.
