Two things become apparent when you first encounter Elder. First, that these guys think that Conan The Barbarian was badass enough to write a two-part, eighteen-minute epic called "The Riddle Of Steel (Parts 1 & 2)". Second, that Elder really digs Sleep. Just try looking up a review of Elder's self-titled debut album on MeteorCity. I bet you can't find one that doesn't mention the legendary dope-huffers in reference to Elder's droning, monolithic stoner metal. There's no denying that Sleep and their album Holy Mountain are a huge influence on Elder's sound, it's pretty obvious in both the band's thick, crushing walls of sludgy droning riffage and the way that Nick DiSalvo channels the heavy monotonous cadence of Al Cisnero's vocal style. Calling them a stright-up Sleep ripoff wouldn't be fair, though, and there's a reason why this Boston band is getting alot of buzz from the stoner/doom metal community. Elder extrapolate upon the Sleep sound by building the heavy riffs into more complex, progressive arrangements, and there are a lot of riffs and guitar parts that are way busier and more intricate than anything Sleep ever came up with. There's plenty of that trance-inducing Sabbath style doom and slow, fuzz-drenched grooves, but Elder also crank the tempo up fairly often, like on the song "Hexe" where they launch into quick bursts of lurching boogie like a mucho heavier Fu Manchu. The album opener "White Walls" starts off with a total Sleep style dirge but later on work in some psychedelic Hammond style keys and proggy noodling, and both parts of the "Riddle Of Steel" saga hook up some supreme chugging riffage with wah-soaked solos that stretch out for minutes at a time, and even work in some passages of cool ambient keyboards and laid back cosmic psychedelia in the lull between bone-crushing sludge. Elder's sound isn't groundbreaking or anything, but they've got killer riffs to spare and that's what really counts when yer playing this sort of trance-inducing metal, and most importantly, Elder answer the question as to what the hell Sleep might have sounded like if they had gone in a slightly proggy direction after Holy Mountain. The packaging is pretty sweet too, with Adrian Dexter's vaguely Arik Roper-ish artwork on a heavy gatefold jacket.