It’s been confirmed that ex-Baroness drummer Allen Blickle has died at the age of 42.
Though Blickle left the Georgia metal band in 2013, the band announced the news on social media on Sunday. Frontman John Dyer Baizley wrote: “It breaks my heart to have to share the news that my dear friend, creative partner and former bandmate Allen Blickle passed away a few days ago.”
Baizley continued: “I’m still in shock that he’s gone. We ask for understanding as his family and this band process his passing and grieve his loss. Allen, I love you and miss you. I treasure every moment we shared.”
We don’t yet know a cause of death, although a tribute posted by Laura Pleasants of Kylesa - another band on the Georgia metal scene - suggested that Blickle had been suffering from an illness of some description.
“I was so heartbroken… finding out how the past month was. I am just gutted, dude. We all thought you had this thing beat. Fuck, we were supposed to hang out when i got back from tour… Gone too soon my friend. I’m glad you are at peace and no longer in pain.”
Blickle was one of the founding members of Baroness and played on the band’s initial run of colour-coded albums: Red (2007), Blue (2009) and 2012’s Yellow and Green.
Later that year, the band were involved in a bus crash when their touring vehicle fell over 30 feet – Blickle and bassist Matt Maggioni both sustained serious injuries – and in Blickle’s case he fractured his vertebrae.
The accident marked a turning point for the drummer and he left the band in 2013. Speaking to The Fader that year, Blickle admitted that the crash had forced him to re-evaluate his life and strained relationships within the band: “After the accident, there was space put between us that I regret to say was mostly my fault.
"I was in some way pushing myself in another direction. I didn’t know how to handle the horrible situation we all went through, but who does?”
In the last decade, Blickle had played with Romantic Dividends, Alpaca and A Place To Bury Strangers. More recently, he had begun to carve out a name for himself as a TV and film composer – he worked on the 2020 Netflix series We Are The Champions.
