Massachusetts trio Elder will release their third album, Lore, on Feb. 28. A week after the record comes out via Stickman Records in Europe and Armageddon Shop in the US, the three-piece will embark on a three-week tour with first-leg support from Washington’s Mos Generator that will take them through most of March along the Eastern Seaboard. If I had to guess, they’ll be on the West Coast somewhere around their appearance at this year’s Psycho California fest in May with Sleep, Pentagram, Om, Earth and many, many others, but more dates are still to be announced. Every band hits a point where they have to decide if they’re going to really make a go for it or not. Elder, it would seem, are going for it.

All the better for planet earth in general. Anyone who heard 2012’s Spires Burn/Release 10″ (streamed here) could tell you they were on the cusp of something really special. Their 2008 self-titled and 2011’s Dead Roots Stirring (review here) both showcased a marked potential in what was then a young band — the second outing was a leap from the first — but with Lore, they push their sound deeper into a tonally rich progressive heavy rock, rife with intricate rhythmic turns, runs of bass and guitar, exploratory sensibility, swing and presence. A five-track full-length that only once dips below the 10-minute mark (“Deadweight” is 9:28), Lore feels grand, clean in its production and clear in its intent to redefine the band’s sound even as they thrust into by-now familiar crescendos and sweeping passages.

I’ve said on multiple occasions that I think Elder are among the finest US heavy psych has to offer, and that remains true, but guitarist/vocalist Nick DiSalvo (also Gold and Silver), bassist Jack Donovan and drummer Matt Couto (also Kind) have branched beyond those confines, and one of Lore‘s greatest strengths proves to be its crispness. As tight as they’ve been all along, a song like opener “Compendium” snaps the listener into the album, a brief alarm clock of a guitar noodle giving way to the full thrust right when it seems most dizzying. The track keeps “dizzying” as a central theme, Elder building parts on top of each other as they motor through verses and a chorus en route to an extended instrumental section that comprises much of the 10-minute piece’s second half in an adrenaline surge of lead guitar, crashing drums and dense bass working together with unbridled, mature chemistry. Elder have had a few triumphs over the last seven years since their first record, but as the chorus returns in the last minute of “Compendium,” it’s awfully hard not to feel like we’re witnessing their finest moment yet.

The album branches out from there, and with a month still to go to the release, I won’t spoil the joys of the 15-minute title-track, or of “Legend” or “Spirit at Aphelion,” but you can find “Compendium” on the Soundcloud player below, followed by the current tour dates (they also play Hull‘s last show on Feb. 21 in Brooklyn; more here), and I wholeheartedly recommend you take a listen.

More to come:

Elder tour dates with Mos Generator:

03/06 Providence RI AS220

03/07 Peterborough NH Wreck Room

03/08 Rochester NY Bug Jar

03/09 Pittsburgh PA Gooski’s

03/10 Columbus OH Ace of Cups

03/11 Indianapolis IN 5th Quarter

03/12 Chicago IL Reggie’s

03/13 Texarkana TX Silver Dollar

03/14 Dallas TX Double Wide

03/16 Austin TX Beerland*

03/20 Austin TX The North Door*

03/21 Austin TX The Lost Well*

03/23 Houston TX Mango’s*

03/24 New Orleans LA Siberia*

03/25 Atlanta GA 529*

03/26 Charlotte NC Tremont Music Hall*

03/27 Richmond VA Strange Matter*

03/28 Baltimore MD Metro Gallery*

03/29 Philadelphia PA Kung Fu Necktie*

03/30 Boston MA TT the Bear’s Place*

* no Mos Generator

Elder on Thee Facebooks

Elder on Bandcamp

Armageddon Shop

Stickman Records