Elder - New Album - "Omens"

[StoutAndAle]

I've been a big fan of all of Elder's stuff so far but I'm finding it very hard to get into this one. Might be the keyboards.

I'll give it another few spins.

https://beholdtheelder.bandcamp.com/album/omens

[ochoill]

Thought there was a thread for this already but I can't find it - must have been giving out about this somewhere else.

It sounds great and is very well written and put together, but the vocals are just bad.  They're technically good, but they don't suit the music for me at all and have practically put me off the album.  I liked all their previous stuff mind, and have enjoyed the progression of their music over the years, but wish his vocals had kept some of the grit that was there on Dead Roots Stirring and Lore - they weren't heavy yeah but the lack of polish in them suited the music a lot more.  I've gave it two goes and musically loved it each time though.

[StoutAndAle]

Thought there was a thread for this already but I can't find it - must have been giving out about this somewhere else.

It sounds great and is very well written and put together, but the vocals are just bad.  They're technically good, but they don't suit the music for me at all and have practically put me off the album.  I liked all their previous stuff mind, and have enjoyed the progression of their music over the years, but wish his vocals had kept some of the grit that was there on Dead Roots Stirring and Lore - they weren't heavy yeah but the lack of polish in them suited the music a lot more.  I've gave it two goes and musically loved it each time though.

Same - I thought that I started a thread here when the first track was released.

You're right about the vocals - they don't sound anything like earlier records. I found myself wondering on the first listen if it was actually Nick DiSalvo singing.

[ldj]

I need to give it more listens but I've been underwhelmed so far. I read an interview where Nick said they got sidetracked with the amount of equipment the studio had and just ended up jamming a lot instead of working on songs and to be honest you can kinda tell. This may also be why a lot of people aren't enjoying the vocals on this one, he was never the strongest vocalist but he put a lot of effort into the vocal melodies, especially on Reflections. Maybe it will grow on me though. It's definitely not the album people thought it was going to be though, a lot of people thought they were going to pull an Opeth and ditch the heavy parts altogether.