ELDER — Reflections of a Floating World (review)

ELDER — Reflections of a Floating World album cover

Album · 2017 · Heavy Psych

0.5/5 · 2017-08-30
Unitron

Reviewer's Challenge Selection: August 2017

What's worse than bad? I didn't know before, but this album answers that question.

Some people will say that a boring album is worse than a bad one, which I personally disagree with. I'd rather listen to a really boring album than a flat out terrible one, but guess what? This album manages to somehow be both boring AND awful, and how do you ask? Well join me on this masochistic journey, through the seas of mediocrity.

Mastodon's new album mostly rested on the lame side, and Coheed and Cambria has some pretty mediocre stuff too. So take that, and make it worse. Add in some generic ambiance that does nothing but act as filler to justify the long song lengths, making the listener ask where the actual music is, and you've just about got it. Guess what though? The music isn't any better than the droning ambient parts, so you may as well just turn it off and stare at a blank wall. Most of the songs sound pretty much the exact same and follow the same pattern. Synthetic overproduced rock riff, emo-esque vocals, droning ambiance, then repeat. It just all sounds so sterile, and doesn't have any riff, melody, hook, or anything that gets me into the music or brings out any emotions. There is one song that stands out though among the boring stuff. That is "The Falling Veil", and it stands out it all the wrong ways.

Why is it so bad? First of all, it takes like two minutes for the actual song to start playing, but when it starts, you'd rather go back to the ambiance. The riff sounds like some sickening happy melody for the newest summer pop hit. It sounds way too flowery for an what an album like this is seemingly trying to do. For a little while it goes away, so you just get some more boring riffs and vocals, but it comes back. Coupled with a stale polished production, this is not what I look for in a supposedly "hard rock/stoner rock" album. Also, every song is way too long. If you can make it work, go ahead and make an album with all songs being 8+ minutes. However, when you don't have the songwriting skills to back it up, it just ends up feeling like a waste of time.

There is little music that annoys as much as this album, but when I listen to this album I just feel down. I was in a pretty good mood before listening to this. Now I just feel annoyed, but maybe it's because this album doesn't sound like what was advertised. This album is considered stoner rock, but it's really not. It sounds more like a poor man's Motorpsycho than anything else. The only brief moment that is stoner in anyway and sounds decent is a 30 second riff around the 3 minute mark of "Blind". Besides that, it's a pretentious neo-psych/indie/prog rock album that's trying to disguise itself as a stoner rock album. If you want real stoner rock, check out some Clutch or Fu Manchu. Unless you want the Top 10 indie rock hits but made overly long, I would avoid this album.

more than 2 years ago
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Vim Fuego wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Bought a Metal Hammer yesterday. They gave this 8/10. That's why I shouldn't buy Metal Hammer...

Vim Fuego wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I said almost... ;)

TheHeavyMetalCat wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Man some of these comments on Facebook have really pissed me off. It's amazing how quick some people are to start cyber bullying the second someone has a different opinion to them. I think maybe MMA needs to make an official statement condemning this kind of behaviour.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

It's up to you Patrick, just forgive me if I elect not not fan the flames on Facebook by sharing it if you do.

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I'd say go for it if you want to, the trouble is obviously already here.

Vim Fuego wrote:

more than 2 years ago

@Unitron I thought you were quite reserved and restrained in what you said about it. I'm almost tempted to write a review myself, but that might just be looking for trouble.

Nightfly wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Well if i was in this band I'd be quite happy with a review like this as it'll probably encourage more people to listen to see if it's as bad as you say than a good review would. Didn't think it was too bad myself.

TheHeavyMetalCat wrote:

more than 2 years ago

As for that Clutch comment, last time I checked it was pretty much common knowledge that they've played stoner rock on most of their albums, so that commenter may want to check his 'facts' in future before he starts throwing words like 'ignorant' about.

TheHeavyMetalCat wrote:

more than 2 years ago

They obviously expect us all to be sheep and have the same opinion.

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

@HeavyMetalCat: Yeah it is really ironic, people take reviews way too seriously. Obviously the only one who can judge one's taste is themselves, but they can't accept that this is just one person's opinion and it should be irrelevant to most other individuals. Also, what kind of person uses "deceptacon" as an insult. I guess it's because of the "tron".

TheHeavyMetalCat wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I checked this out. Not my usual sort of music but I didn't dislike it.

666sharon666 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

For some reason I was under the impression you didn't enjoy atmospheric stuff too much. Maybe I'm thinking of someone else on here.

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

@Nicole: I actually love atmospheric music, but this album doesn't really give me a sense of atmosphere, it doesn't make me feel anything. Myrkur, Alcest, and The Orb (three completely different artists I know) are some examples of atmospheric music that I love.

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Also, this was advertised to me as a heavy psych/stoner rock album on many websites, so I took that into account when I wrote this review and was listening. I don't get where the person got the "Clutch only made stoner rock album", even if you have strict definitions of the genre, they still had several albums that are stoner. As for kvlt, I dislike most black metal, and most of it that I do like is stuff like Myrkur. Nice try though.

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Wow, I took a look at those comments. I would respond to some of those directly, but I know that these are the kinds of people who can't listen to any opinions that disagree with theirs. I was surprised this got so many comments. I did want to thank Elder for taking it well. And for all of those who felt the need to insult me, I don't professionally write reviews. I write them for my own enjoyment, and this was just selected for me for a reviewer's challenge, and believe me, I don't like writing negative reviews. I completely understand if anyone dislikes my review, it is very angry and rant-y, but if a negative review of a much loved album takes away from your enjoyment of it you should probably think about that rather than lowering down to the same degenerates that plague Youtube comment sections. Thanks for reading my review, and hopefully this experience will help you develop some thicker skin next time someone doesn't like an album you love.

TheHeavyMetalCat wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Not heard of this band before. Looked at the Facebook comments though and wow you have certainly made yourself some enemies with this one. I'm laughing at the irony of some of the comments left though. Like this one:

"Also the reviewer is called Unitron - I picture a fat slob of a deceptacon sat at a desk spewing out hate on his keyboard."

Doesn't this person realise that they're the one 'sat at a desk spewing out hate on his keyboard' when they leave childish comments like this?

MorniumGoatahl wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Congrats on sucessfully starting a Facebook shitstorm.

666sharon666 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I thought it was quite good personally. It's atmospheric heavy psych so I'd guess that if you don't enjoy atmospheric music you wouldn't enjoy this album too much. I can only see it growing on me with more listens though.

666sharon666 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Going to have to check it out for myself. You make it sound so horrible yet it's actually been getting a lot of praise elsewhere, including being the top rated hard rock album for this year so far on RYM. Ironically your negative review has inspired me to check this out more than all the praise heaped on it has.

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I'm glad you can find some enjoyment out of it, I just couldn't stand it. Different strokes for different folks.

DippoMagoo wrote:

more than 2 years ago

It definitely drags a bit towards the end, as the songs are indeed a bit overlong and very samey. Funnily enough, "The Falling Veil" is easily my favorite song here and I'd probably rate it 5 stars, I like it that much. The album goes downhill after that, but I still enjoy it enough to rate it 3.5 after one listen.

Vim Fuego wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I thought it was really dull.

DippoMagoo wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Also, for the genre it more sounds like heavy psych to me than anything else (which does seem to be the consensus on RYM as well.) Certainly not indie rock. That's something entirely different from what this sounds like.

DippoMagoo wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Well, your review is certainly funny, so you get points for that! I gave the first song a listen just of curiosity, and it seems pretty solid to me, though I like long ambient instrumental sections when they're done well, and these seem pretty damn solid to me, and the actual riffs seem good as well. It more just seems this album isn't your style, because honestly, based on the song I heard, it seems like a good album. I'll probably give it a full listen at some point to see if I enjoy it the whole way through.