Elder's Omens: a behemoth of intricately proggy heavy psychedelia

Thankfully no sign of Damian on Elder's fifth album Omens

Elder: Omens
(Image: © Stickman)

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For majestic spaced-out jams it’s pretty hard to beat Elder, who have now developed well beyond their early stoner and doom roots into a behemoth of intricately proggy heavy psychedelia. 

With new drummer Georg Edert on board, Omens is a sterling evolution of the work put into 2015’s Lore and 2017’s Reflections Of A Floating World, the five lengthy tracks benefiting from greater use of Michael Risberg’s keyboard skills to lighten the ever-present oceanic swell of riffs. 

In Procession, Halcyon and Embers, in particular, have a welcome Floydian trippiness to them, with more space to let the compositions breathe and stretch to their full potential. 

Bags of melody, plenty of light and shade, and great songs. A cosmic triumph.

Essi Berelian

Whether it’s magazines, books or online, Essi has been writing about rock ’n’ metal for around thirty years. He has been reviews editor for Classic Rock and Metal Hammer, rock reviews editor for lads mag Front and worked for Kerrang!. He has also written the Rough Guide to Heavy Metal and contributed to the Rough Guide to Rock and Rough Guide Book of Playlists, and the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles (13th edition). Most fun interview? Tenacious D – Jack Black and Kyle Gass – for The Pick of Destiny movie book. An avid record/CD/tape collector, he’s amassed more music than he could ever possibly listen to, which annoys his wife no end.