WARKRIME
Get Loose
(No Way)

AMORPHIS
Silent Waters
(Nuclear Blast)

GODHEADSCOPE
A City Out of Sight
(God is Myth)

TUSK
The Resisting Dreamer
(Tortuga)

HYPNOS 69/MONKEY 3
Split
(Rock n Roll Radio)

GENOCIDE
Apocalyptic Visions 

(Van)

HAVOC UNIT
h.IV+

(Vendlus)

MORE REVIEWS

With three quarters of the band now clean shaven and metaphorically speaking less scruffy, Baroness’ sound has also gone through some clean up work. Long gone from the surprisingly engaging and fluid copy paste work of their first three releases (two inspired EP’s on Hyperrealist and the split with Unpersons’ A Grey Sigh in a Flower Husk); The Red Album sees the band embracing a cleaner more gentile sound. Far from being a one sided piece of work; this new recording from Savannah’s most promising sons is more focused and targeted. It is also so eloquent indeed that in some parts the band’s concurrent flirtations with tempo shifts approximates progressive rock’s memories (“The Birthing”), which in parts totally recalls the spider web finger work of Yes’ Steve Howe.  On other occasions, the songs are as extended and ambitious as those contained in their previous recordings. On that end, and matched with the cleaner and polished production job, The Red Album shows itself as more epic, more accessible and more professional.

For me, it came down to a very simple question; is The Red Album superior to Baroness’ old work?  I don’t think so. Maybe just as good. While First and Second swamed and rejoiced in sludge, crust, punk and metal, The Red Album confidently takes a long deep breath, dives head first and submerges itself into epic metal and portentous progressive rock. So it is hard to be objective. I sort of get mixed feeling when I think of what might become of future works from this band. At the pace their music is advancing; their metal quotient may soon vanish into thin air, but let’s not play fortune teller here. The Red Album is still a hard and ambitious metal album; it is jam packed with eleven histrionic long songs. They are all earthly emotional voyages that are usually grounded by the rough and explosive vocals of John Baizley. Baroness hasn’t really lost its edge; they are just pointing the tip of it to a more anally retentive audience.  

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