Baroness have certainly paid their dues. A bad 2012 bus crash, resulting in traumatic injuries and the departure of three members, played havoc with the remaining lineup’s mental health and threatened to derail a promising career. On their fifth album, though, they sound like a band who aren’t just determined to make up for lost time, but who have realised what is important and want to make the best possible statement they can.
Gold & Grey is ambitious and very personal. Although the Philadelphia-based quartet are generally tagged as metal or progressive rock, it has Philip Glass-like, repetition-based instrumentals (Sevens), banks of choral vocals, ambient sections, orchestrations, spacey krautrock jams (Can Oscura), gentle pianos, strummed acoustic guitars and wistful vocals. When it rocks, they wield edgy power pop riffs, chanted vocals reminiscent of Killing Joke and buckets of emotion. Given a gently psychedelic focus by Flaming Lips’ producer Dave Fridmann, somehow it hangs together, unfolding like a journey. New guitarist Gina Gleason’s harmonies bring yet another texture and combine well with sole original member John Baizley’s impassioned frets about the planet and himself. “We’re heading for disaster,” he yells on opener Front Toward Enemy. Mental health struggles seem to inform I’d Do Anything and Baizley’s cathartic yells of “I am scared to be alone” and “I’d do anything to feel alive again.” Their travails have produced an epic, ambitious collection that is beautifully beatific, purifying and uplifting.
