“I would like to say [the band’s] a democracy but I think all of us know that I definitely take the director’s seat,” says guitarist, keyboard player and vocalist, Nick DiSalvo. Yet, while he is at the forefront, DiSalvo couldn’t do it without drummer Matt Couto and bassist Jack Donovan. DiSalvo began laying the foundations for what would become Elder when he was 14-years old, inspired by such metal acts as Sleep, Electric Wizard, Black Sabbath and Church of Misery.
Like most people who delve into metal subgenres, DiSalvo’s fascination with doom metal wasn’t fuelled by a need to look cool or fashionable. However, the ever-changing zeitgeist has led to his chosen style being in the spotlight in 2015. The recent swing in popularity hasn’t escaped the frontman’s gaze.
“Yeah definitely [it has changed],” he says. “We’re not long-time doom metallers. We’ve been a band since 2007, which is now eight years, but we weren’t around in the ‘90s like the founders of the genre. During our lifetime, it has changed. Depending on where you are – there are some places we’ve played down in Maryland where the doom metal genre started, and there it’s very much old guard. But what we picked up as a style, I totally attribute that to stoner rock becoming popular and the second wave of rock’n’roll that’s going on.”
Indeed, many believe doom metal originated in Maryland, and ‘Maryland doom’ is a sub-genre all to itself – with acts like Wino and Spirit Caravan some its notable alumni. But, despite admitting Elder are reasonably new to the doom scene, DiSalvo finds certain aspects of the current movement somewhat disheartening.
“I feel myself getting jaded sometimes when I see the kind of bands that are just coming out hot and making it big all of a sudden,” he says. “And I think a lot of it comes down to selling yourself and your image, rather than how genuine they are as a band. There’s definitely regions when we play out on the West Coast in California and there are kids at the shows wearing fringe jackets and cool boots and motorcycle shit. You can tell it’s become very in vogue.”
In February this year Elder released their third LP Lore, which heralds a truly devastating maturation of the band’s sound. It’s an intricately textured work that exposes the deft interplay between guitar, bass and drums.
“Once we have the songs locked down and have played them a bunch it becomes somewhat of a mechanical process,” says DiSalvo, before clarifying, “Mechanical is not the right word, because it is very much about feeling. There’s a lot of ways you can cue the other person or not cue them and just keep jamming as much as you want. I want to say it’s hypnotic because that sounds so cool, but for us it’s not because we have to focus a little bit more than that to nail some of the parts.”
BY DAN WATT
