ALBUM REVIEW: The Long Forever – Elephant Tree & Lowrider
There has been a rise in the forces of heavy psych and stoner rock combining forces to create monolithic split albums over the last couple of years – REZN and VINNUM SABBATHI’s Slient Future being a prime example of one of these collaboration albums. Coming off the back of two critically acclaimed albums in 2020 for both bands, pillars of London’s psychedelic doom scene ELEPHANT TREE and Swedish stoner rock giants LOWRIDER have teamed up to unleash The Long Forever. Taking its title from the nickname ELEPHANT TREE singer/guitarist Jack Townley gave to the multi-week coma he was kept in for medical reasons which followed a near-fatal biking accident in early 2023. The collaborative album sees both bands explore stress, trauma, the passing of time, gravity, the wonders of sound, and joy, which offers up a catharsis unlike any other.
Hailing from Karlstad, in central Sweden, LOWRIDER formed in the mid-1990s and fast became one of Sweden’s most pre-eminent stoner rock bands in the wake of the post-KYUSS era of the genre. The Swedish quartet have blown minds around the globe alongside appearing at festivals such as HellFest, Up In Smoke and DesertFest London. Well known for their churning fuzz guitars and expansive heaviness alongside their overall sense of purpose in their music, their half of The Long Forever is everything you could possibly want out of a LOWRIDER album. Packed full of high energy grooves, catchy melodies and bluesy solos, the band shows why they are so beloved in the global stoner scene.
Opening up with And The Horse You Rode In On, LOWRIDER get The Long Forever started with a short, sharp shock of scintillating energy with an uptempo thundering riff. One thing that has always given LOWRIDER’s music an edge is the unique vocal combination of Peder Bergstrand (bass) and Ola Hellquist (guitars) providing memorable and stirring melodies alongside the guitar work of Niclas Stålfors and pounding rhythms of Andreas Eriksson. This is demonstrated excellently on Caldera, a trippy, fuzz drenched ten minute adventure into the liminal spaces of the mind that leaves you floating aimlessly but in blissful serenity. Into The Grey is a more melancholic track that captures the raw emotions of the passing of time and trauma, which often feels like a grey space for many.
This leads into the first collaborative track on the album Through The Rift, which sees both bands come together for a monumentally epic exploration of heavy psych riffs and atmospheres. It is here that you see how well the band’s compliment each other, making a stoner/heavy psych supergroup for the ages. This leads you seamlessly into ELEPHANT TREE’s half of the album.
Formed in the Big Smoke in 2013, ELEPHANT TREE have spent the last decade melting minds with their heavy, melodic and expansive sound to audiences around the globe. After the success of their 2020 album Habits, the band have grown in popularity and have become a pillar of the London heavy psych scene. However, after a near-fatal bike accident in 2023 left Townley in a medically induced coma, things halted for a short while. The Long Forever marks the quartet’s return and the lyrical themes centre around the enormity of Townley’s experiences of this traumatic ordeal.
ELEPHANT TREE’s first song is Fucked In The Head, more than subtly hints at Townley’s experiences. It is a nine and a half minute track of intense, grinding atmospheres and darkness, this feels like a cathartic experimentation of shifting through the various light and dark environments that a human can experience while in a coma. Gliding notes circle around you inducing a sense of nausea, while Townley’s vocals sound like a far off observer trying to make contact with the patient from deep in the shadows. Moving into 4 For 2, ELEPHANT TREE showcase their renowned riff writing skills. The song is driven by a deep bass grooves of Peter Holland and fuzzing guitar riffs, accentuated by the pounding drums and twinkling cymbals of Sam Hart.
The album closes with the second collaborative track between the two bands, Long Forever. A wonderful consolidation of both band’s melancholic but heavy, fuzz driven sounds that climaxes with a plethora of riffs and captivating vocal melodies from both bands. It really sums up the anxiety inducing reality of the album’s subject matter with the chanted vocals “breath and die” repeated towards the end of the track.
Despite the circumstances of this album’s inception, it was always going to be a collaboration of colossal proportions. Both LOWRIDER and ELEPHANT TREE have excelled themselves in the creation of The Long Forever, with riffs a plenty and a captivating melancholy throughout the album, this is one of the finest examples of heavy psych/stoner that you’ll hear this year.
Rating: 9/10
The Long Forever is set for release on 25th October via Blues Funeral Recordings.
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