Like two timelines converging, ELEPHANT TREE and LOWRIDER come together to present the collaborative album "The Long Forever," easily one of the most eagerly awaited split releases in the history of heavy rock.
Arriving in the wake of two landmark 2020 albums ("Habits" from Elephant Tree and "Refractions" from Lowrider), "The Long Forever" finds both bands at critical junctures: each with a broad and expanding influence, each revered onstage and off, and each delivering its first proper new release in four years to tremendous anticipation.
Despite this pressure, Elephant Tree and Lowrider have seized the opportunity to redefine who they are and declare where their musical voyages will go next.
Bringing these bands onto a shared collaborative platter would be an event regardless of the surrounding circumstances. As it is, though, the significance of this album is even greater.
"The Long Forever" takes its title from the nickname Elephant Tree singer/guitarist Jack Townley gave to the multi-week coma he was in for medical reasons following a near-fatal biking accident in early 2023. Dreaming without waking and losing all sense of time as his mind attempted to process and cope with the ordeal, that lyrical description can only hint at the enormity of Jack’s experience.
And yet, the year or so that followed manifested a musical freedom in the bands’ respective approaches. Lowrider has grown more complex and expressive, while Elephant Tree has chosen a rawer, set-up-the-mics-and-go approach.
"The Long Forever" is where the bands meet, subverting and superseding all expectations on them, with a traumatic nexus as the gravitational singularity around which the entire LP orbits, bending and shaping every note that escapes forth.
In the end, perseverance, healing and stubbornness of passion made "The Long Forever" a reality. Listen with an open mind and love in your heart!
