Baroness - Gold & Grey (2019)^{Release ID: 9302}

Baroness have always been a strange band for me. While the band has always been a good one with some stellar albums such as Red Album, Blue Record, and Purple, this band has always been able to impress me with a new brand of progressive sludge metal each time. With Purple being the most recent example, calling on the assistance of producer Dave Fridmann, for one of the bands most laid back projects.

Now with Gold & Grey, the band have called upon Fridmann’s services once again. And the result is… well, certainly not bad by any stretch, but it is absolutely a step down from their previous output.

And most of the blame has to be put on Dave Fridmann again, just like it was with the last album. Yes, I still do really enjoy Purple, but some of the production choices kept the album from being an epic masterpiece. And that still applies to this album, particularly in the percussion. I don’t know what Fridmann was thinking, opening the album with a bass drum that is swallowing everything around it in the mix on “Front Toward Enemy”. This continues into the next song, “I’m Already Gone”, in which the guitars have been compressed just so that they don’t peak in the mix. It also doesn’t help that John Baizley’s vocals have also been compromised.

Now if you divide this album into its three main parts as Baizley has described it, then I can give credit that part one is easily the worst. Parts three mixes the percussion a much better on “Broken Halo” and “Borderlines”. Part two is much more restrained, and does not use that much percussion at all. Only “Throw Me an Anchor” and “Cold-Blooded Angels”, which might be my favourite song on the album, have an aggressive drive. “I’d Do Anything” is an excellent tune which shows restraint and excellent use of dynamics as the song modlates from piano, to acoustic guitar arpeggios, to electric power chords. And “Emmett - Radiating Light” is an acoustic song with chimes and some wonderful vocal harmonies from John and Gina Gleason.

Now parts two and three might be the album’s better pieces, but that doesn’t make them perfect. For one, the bass lines on this album are nearly non-existent. Whether that be because of the compressed guitars on the first third, or the bass line just copying the guitars on the remaining two-thirds. The only tracks where the bass is given a prominent role are “Tourniquet” and “Borderlines”. And then there is the problem with the overblown percussion during the outro of “Throw Me an Anchor” and the closing track “Pale Sun”. If you already found the sound that works, why would you go and bastardize the ends of a pretty good song and album, respectively?

In addition, I have to bring up the structure as it relates to the instrumental breaks. Because of the inflated production, none of these songs have a genuinely great counterpoint to John’s vocals. The only song that comes even close is “Borderlines”, but that song has three seperate guitar solos! Maybe pass them around to other songs to make it more streamlined?

My other big problem has to do with the fazer effect and it abuse on this album. Whether it be on the piano interlude “Sevens”, the acoustic guitar on “Emmett - Radiating Light”, or even on the vocals on “Broken Halo”. It’s something that could have been effective if it had only been done once or twice, but every single track has it! When you know it’s going to happen, it less cool and “progressive” and more of catering to a quota.

I know this seems way too negative for an album that I did still enjoy, but it Baroness! I know that John Baizley and the rest of the crew have what it takes to create a truly remarkable album. And this isn’t it. Someone else actually commented on this album, suggesting that this was the ...And Justice For All of Baroness’ career. And while I certainly see the comparison with a lack of bass, the album that I’m reminded of more is Death Magnetic. For all of the crap that AJfA takes for its nonexistent bass, at least it isn’t overcompressed mush. Now Gold & Grey, certainly isn’t overcompressed mush either, but there are some alarming warning signs with this album, and I would be very cautious if I was Baroness going forward.