Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Review - Blue Record: Baroness
Posted on 5:12 PM by Clumpy
Rating: 8.2Due to their geographical and occasional aural similarity to Mastodon, fellow Georgian rockers Baroness may never shake the comparisons to their brother band. After all, both groups are easily classifiable as "progressive sludge," both started on the same label and both peddle similar brands of hyperliterary, lyrically inoffensive riffage for metalheads and run-of-the-mill indie waifs alike. Hell, ads for Baroness' Red Album even shipped with Mastodon records!
In every Baroness review for at least the next few years, Mastodon will be the elephant in the room, maybe even the yardstick, the standard of measurement. This is unfortunate, as Baroness is a different beast entirely from Mastodon, and while descriptors like "a more archaic, less playful and Scandinavian Opeth" might be as fun to imagine as they are to write, the Blue Record is unique and speaks for itself both as an evolution of Baroness' previous work and as one of the more enjoyable releases this year in the genre.
This band's sonic texture is more notable than their lyrics, which are mainly archaic and incomprehensible. On the Blue Record the rhythm guitar riffs and the lead guitar winds unpredictable melodies through the long instrumental sections, while the band's vocalists add a rawer, intermittent color to the verses. The record is nicely produced, the drums in particular receiving an important place in the mix - though they're not nearly as technical as that of some of their contemporaries (including a particular group I promised not to name again in this review before I realized that I'd be mentioning the drums).
Baroness brings less obligation to the table than some of their peers, which definitely makes this record a grower. As someone who found Red Album's appeal fading after each listen, I was pleased to find the melancholic bits in Blue more involving, the breakdowns more exhilarating and the heavier parts far more thrilling than I thought after an admittedly-blah first spin. The songs don't always seem to progress naturally, and the album's narrative inconsistency doesn't really seem to be building up to anything, though it's rarely a slog and you'd be hard-pressed to find a better metal release in recent memory (meaning, naturally, in the internet age, in the last three months).
Now if Baroness' next record is only about something, they may have a classic on their hands.
--- Dustin Steinacker
[mp3] Baroness - "The Gnashing"
