BLUE RECORD IS UNSUPRISINGLY SOLID; OUR PREVIEW, AS WELL AS A TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT!

by The WZA'd (Philly)

I enjoy writing for Crustcake. I enjoy it for the special moments, like hanging out at Van Damned’s house and listening to some Disfear, or heading up to Brooklyn to see Pig Destroyer with theseseans, or waking up this morning to find out that I can listen to Baroness’s Blue Record a full two months before its official release date.

Teasing aside, I have to say that Blue Record, like it’s predecessor Red Album, is something really special. Boosted by confidence over the success of their last album, Baroness has taken another big step away from sludge metal and into a sound that is more fully their own.

Instead of stoner/sludge metal’s traditional minor-key riffing, Baroness write major-key melodies with interweaving guitar harmonies. It might sound ridiculous, but they actually sound more like the Minibosses than they do Mastodon. Vocal harmonies also come into play often, and “Steel that Sleeps the Eye” actually sounds like something Crosby, Stills and Nash could have written, with its “Helplessly Hoping”-esque sung lead and acoustic guitar.

Remember Red Album’s motif? It appeared at the end of “Cockroach En Fleur” and served as a coda to the album in “Grad,” the album’s final track. On Blue Record, “Bullhead’s Psalm” serves the same purpose, grounding the album after journeys into the settings Baroness conjure with their music.

On a different note, the band is going to headline a five-week tour starting this November, with unannounced supporting acts. Hopefully we can experience in their live show the same range they show off on the album.

Remember that you can listen to the first two tracks (combined as one) on Baroness's myspace, and you can already pre-order the CD, which comes out October 13th, in some nice deals from Relapse. No word on vinyl yet, unfortunately.