new ear porn for you.

Baroness, one of my most beloved bands, just came out with a new record a few weeks ago. I'm halfway through the first listen and I am happy to report that I feel like I have just gotten ear-fucked, in both good and bad ways.

things are definitely different on this album. the mind-blowing guitar wizardry is still there, as is the signature heavy baroness sound, but everything sounds much more slick and polished, with lots of extra tricks and fanciness from the production. many of the songs are also much shorter. one thing that does bother me are the occasional changes they've made to john dyer baizley's previously gravelly, unbelievably sexy vocals: now they are smoothed out and reverbed and layered with even more backup vocals to an almost comical degree. it just seems to detract rather than support.

here's "The Sweetest Curse," which, so far, is one of my favorites on the album. it sounds very familiar, extremely similar to the straightforward hardcore sound of their first EPs, but with some new and strange tidbits.




Baroness - Blue Record [2009]

edit: re-uploaded. it should work just fine now.

myspace.com/yourbaroness
last.fm/baroness