ELDER knows a really cool artist.

It’s the Holiday Season and all, so I’m going to try and be as gentle as I can here. After giving the six songs that make up the new ‘Reflect’ EP several listens, I can safely say that Elder have a really cool album cover. The illustration by UArts alumni Mike Wohlberg is what drew my attention to the band in the first place, and after spending some time with the music, it’s still my favorite part.

As much as I generally hate the limitations of genres, Elder could easily be pigeonholed as “screamo”, and that is their downfall. The music, while average and predictable much of the time, does manage to become interesting and engaging on occasion. But like many too many bands before them, the one dimensional angsty-kid vocals drag the band down and make it boring. To emphasize the vocal shortcomings, they seem awkwardly buried in the mix as if even the band themselves didn’t think they sounded all that hot.

“Friendly Fire” and “Remember These Days” are the high points of the album for sure, both of which put the screaming to good use. You just have to wonder how much better these songs would be with a capable singer added in. Even without any singer at all, Elder could probably exist as a pretty cool instrumental post-rock type band. These talented players are doing themselves a disservice by settling for existence as a mediocre screamo band in a sea of far too many mediocre screamo bands.

Make sure to check out more work by Mike Wohlberg at his site: thefatkidillustration.com

And I guess you can check out Elder too.
myspace.com/elderphiladelphia

About Joseph Rose

Joseph is a father, a music production teacher, and a front man. He consumes as much music as he does pizza. And that's a lot.