Sunday, 24 May 2026

ELDER - Through Zero (Album Review)

Release Date: May 29th 2026. Record Label: Various. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl

Through Zero - Tracklisting

1.Sigil To Ruin

2.Capture/Release 

3.Through Zero 

4.Strata

5.Sight Unseen

6.Blighted Age


Members


Nicholas DiSalvo - Guitar, vocals, synthesizer

Jack Donovan - Bass guitar

Michael Risberg - Guitar, Rhodes piano, slide guitar

Georg Edert - Drums, percussion


Review


Elder are celebrating their twentieth anniversary as a band this year and finally perhaps cemented their place and reputation as the premier Heavy Psychedelic Stoner Rock band the scene currently has right now. The band have released multiple critically acclaimed albums since then and some are considered classics of the scene. Elder may still get their usual round of critics saying they prefer the heavier Doom Metal sound they delivered on their earlier records but the band have soldiered onto bigger and better things with each subsequent release.


Through Zero is their seventh album and it’s another masterclass of everything that came before it with Elder rewriting their own musical legacy with a record that manages to be brilliantly heavy and laid back at the same time. This record feels like ELDER has discovered the lost art of storytelling with the way they open up with each individual track that includes emotionally charged lyrics that make you sit up and take notice.


This album is perhaps Elder’s most sonically diverse release yet with the band moving areas into Post-Rock, Shoegaze, Electronica and Progressive elements unlike ever before. There’s even some creative callbacks to their classic 2007 debut album Dead Roots Stirring along the way. Elder leaves no creative stone unturned or untouched with Nick’s stunning work on Synths and Michael’s haunting Rhodes Piano instrumental passages allowing Georg on Drums and Jack Donovan on Bass to form a superbly intelligent rhythm section which holds everything together.


The record is full of passionate musical surroundings with Elder creating a Space Rock landscape to build their musical ideas upon especially within the epic opening track Sigil To Ruin. The track runs for over ten minutes that sees Elder relive past musical glories and modernise them for a new found audience discovering this great band for the first time. Elder effortlessly blends areas  Psych, Post-Rock, Doom, Stoner and Prog Rock into music of such rich musical depth you can’t help but fall in love with what's being played. There is a wonderful “orchestral” and “classical” feel that is being teased and developed on this track that’s used throughout the rest of the album.


Sigil To Ruin is just the doorway to expand the listener’s mind into ELDER’s increasingly hopeful and brilliantly musical quest. The other tracks allows Elder to breathe new life into the whole Heavy Psychedelic scene with different levels of musical heaviness bringing a sense of calm and distorted awareness which fully sells the whole Space Rock vibe whilst being superbly grounded at the same time. 


There are some parts of the album where Elder veer into Post-Metal territory and perhaps challenging the likes of PELICAN and RUSSIAN CIRCLES of developing some of the most sublime Post-Rock/Post-Metal sounds I’ve heard in a very long time on tracks such as Capture/Release, Through Zero and Strata. Though, it’s the ethereal soundscapes that keeps the record firmly within the Heavy Psych and Stoner Rock environments. 


The music is beautifully played with everyone putting in truly magnificent performances with Nick’s vocals once again showing a wealth of knowledge and maturity way beyond his years. Though, it’s the complete musical package that Through Zero takes the listener upon with a never-ending array of uplifting Ambient sounds and forward thinking progressive melodies that’s backed up by first rate production values that make this a real grand musical adventure.


I remember reviewing Dead Roots Stirring for a defunct webzine back in 2008 and I never thought I would be doing the same thing almost two decades later with another new record from them. Fast forward and ELDER have released seven full length albums, four EP’s and two live albums.


The music may have changed directions slightly but they have always remained the same band with a level of warmth and uplifting quality that remains virtually unmatched in today’s scene. Through Zero is a testament to that fact and how Elder proves once again why they’re masters of their musical craft that other bands can’t even come close to fully matching or even surpassing. 


Elder may have just released the finest Heavy Psychedelic / Stoner Rock album of the year for me. 


Words by Steve Howe


Thanks to All Noir for the promo..


Through Zero is available to buy now on CD/DD/Vinyl via Stickman Records, in North America through Blues Funeral Recordings and Bird’s Robe in Australia.


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