I’ve been listening to the Berlin-via-Massachusetts crew Elder for a long time, and I still mostly think of them as a doom metal band. But when you hear the opening of Elder’s new track “Capture/Release,” it’s clear that that’s not the case anymore. Elder have been moving in gentler, proggier, most psychedelic directions for years. “Capture/Release” opens with the sound of the band locking into a soft, fluttery synth-groove, and it’s a clear sign that they’re pushing deeper into the unknown.

“Capture/Release” is the second single from Elder’s upcoming LP Through Zero, and we’ve already posted the expansive title track. Much like that song, “Capture/Release” is a nine-minute epic that moves through lots of different sounds and ideas, some of which might even be described as doom metal. The band still thinks of this as a heavy riff song, and it is that, but I’m more struck by how vast and pretty it is. Here’s what frontman Nick DiSalvo says about the new track:

“Capture/Release” is uncharacteristic in the Elder catalog for its relative straightforwardness and energy, which grew out of an older song fragment from the beginning of the decade. Like much of this record, for me it has an old meets new Elder spirit, dialing in a bit more of the heavy riffing from previous albums to mesh with our current sensibilities.

Playing this song together is a lot of fun, and that’s a statement in itself for what the track is about. Being a creative person in this day and age is an exercise in self-exploitation, fighting for visibility in a living hell of content creation and paid advertising just to keep your head above water. “Capture/Release” is about the feeling of being caught in this technocratic nightmare that’s been imposed on us all and reaffirming the reasons we create as humans in the first place — purely for our own free expression and joy. It says a lot about our world that we need to remind ourselves of why we do what we love when that becomes divested of its inherent meaning.

Sean Miller directed the “Capture/Release” video, and it shows Elder performing the song with a really cool soundstage light-show happening all around them. Check it out below.

Through Zero is out 5/29 on Blues Funeral Recordings (North America), Stickman Records (Europe/UK), and Bird’s Robe (Australia).