Swooshing Pink Floyd vibes, kerranging Sleep chugs, and mutating mellow Motorpsycho tones symbiotically swirl in this guitar duo’s growing setups.
Facing a mandatory shelter-in ordinance to limit the spread of COVID-19, PG enacted a hybrid approach to filming and producing Rig Rundowns. This is the second video in that format, and we stand behind the final product.
Since its inception with their self-titled debut in 2008, the band never succumbed to a singular sound. Pushing forward is their only direction. While Elder’s early work (including their second album, Dead Roots Stirring, released in 2011) was akin to a relentless “Iron” Mike Tyson with overpowering attack and devastating delivery, they still allowed for dynamic shifts and sonic sabbaticals during calmer passages heard in “III” and the end of “Hexe.”
And if Dead Roots Stirring was Tyson KO’ing people in 30 seconds, 2015’s Lore saw Elder becoming a cerebral, manipulative, rope-a-dope Muhammad Ali from the Rumble in the Jungle. They graduated beyond worshipping the intimidating, hypnotic riff and explored the outer realms of stoner metal by including psychedelia from Colour Haze, jazzy progressions from Motorpsycho, and moodier, atmospheric Bo Hansson-y layers with mellotron, keyboards, and cleaner guitar tones.
Melody, space, and as an inverse result, power continued to blossom in 2017’s Reflections of a Floating World. In any given song or moment of an album, those rooted pillars complementarily pull the band in various directions, but cohesively, it still moves them forward. To foster that perpetual growth, you need to put yourself in unusual scenarios.
2019’s The Gold & Silver Sessions did just that by removing lyrics and putting the quartet in an experimental scenario focused heavily on organic jamming. Possibly indirectly, the exercise unlocked avenues echoed and embellished (with precise polish) that are felt throughout the just-released Omens. Allowing other instruments to lead and flourish (keyboards in “Embers” and synths in “Halcyon”) help avoid the guitar fatigue when the shortest song is over nine minutes.
Each album and collection of music created by Elder advances their sound. Some fans argue they’ve departed from a genre they helped define. Others have enjoyed the expansion of their spacey storytelling. Both opinions are debatable. The fact of the matter is we should withhold cemented judgement and rather enjoy the unraveling metamorphosis until all their patterns of the kaleidoscopic have been visualized.
In this episode, Elder guitarist Michael Risberg (left) and founding guitarist/singer Nick DiSalvo (right) interview each other about their live setups. Each configuration centers around a custom instrument, blaring British heads, and scores of stomps that will eventually support the band’s brand-new album, Omens. Later on in the video, bassist Jack Donovan runs us through his meat-and-potatoes, bass-battle station.
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A Reverend V, two fiery British-voiced heads, and some tone-sizzling, time-bending stomps fire this warped comet rider into psychedelic spaces.
Facing a mandatory shelter-in ordinance to limit the spread of COVID-19, PG enacted a hybrid approach to filming and producing Rig Rundowns. This is the first video in that format, and we stand behind the final product.
In this episode, fill-in host Kevin Dempsey enters the tone bunker with Howling Giant guitarist/singer Tom Polzine. The power trio axeman details his love for rock-stance-ready Vs, explains why he rocks a guitar head alongside a bass head, and plays through his pedal playground that unlocks sounds ranging from squashed, angry fuzz to warbly extraterrestrial voyages propelling the band into spaces between worlds.
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The sultan of sludge illustrates that his first band is a shuttle for sonic exploration launching into orbit on the backs of triple-humbucker guitars, a sierra of Oranges, and two boards the size of Cape Canaveral.
Matt Pike is much like his guitar playing—powerful, blunt, slightly pissed off, and occasionally out of tune. And he’s been playing guitar almost as long as he’s been talking. “My uncle and grandpa used to always play guitar and I just remember loving those times,” says Pike. “Ever since I could handle a guitar, I’ve been playing one.”
Pike’s headbanging lineage started in the ’90s with stoner-metal icons Sleep, and after that band’s initial burnout, continued with the ferocious High on Fire. Decades of playing have honed Pike’s perspective about his instrument and music: “Riffs are the conversation starter—that’s what brings people in, but you better have more to offer than just that,” he says. “I create with the guitar and the riff is my illustrative force.” For fans of Pike’s raging riffage, it should be no shock that the frontman/guitarist had enough to say by way of his guitar (and High on Fire lyrics) to populate two new albums: Electric Messiah from High on Fire and Sleep’s The Sciences.
Since the release of those two critically acclaimed albums in 2018, Pike’s vision has been validated by way of a Grammy for Best Metal Performance (Electric Messiah) and dozens of sold-out Sleep shows that have continued to send the doom trio around the world. While the tour that brought Pike, bassist/vocalist Al Cisneros, and drummer Jason Roeder to town was delayed because Pike had one of his toes partially amputated due to diabetes, the pioneering guitarist couldn’t be sidelined for long. “The guitar is a spiritual instrument—it goes from heart, to head, to hands, out the speaker cabs, and into the universe. That directly impacts the people who listen to you—they know if you’re full of shit or not. I’ve always known I was meant to express myself through this 6-string tool. The only constant through addiction, hard times, juvenile delinquency, heartache, and life has been the guitar.”
Before the band’s show at Nashville’s Marathon Music Works, the bare-chested shredder threw on a shirt, strapped on a Les Paul Artisan, and explained to PG’s Chris Kies how Sleep’s aural expeditions are full of patient, spontaneous moments built on a bed of sustain and swirl.
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