Purple

Like others have said, the mastering on the physical copy is awful. It sounds terrible, period. I understand a more deconstructed, more punk, more stripped-down vibe, but this sounds closer to a 12-track in someone's garage. Which saddens me because Baroness is one of my all-time favorite groups and aurally, this album simply doesn't hold up to any previous works. I DO like the tracks, very much so, I just hate the mastering...and Baroness had 100% control over the sound quality and they screwed the pooch on it.

When you're a metal maverick at 54 with nobody to share new music with, finding and listening to new bands is an adventure to say the least. My friends at and near my age for the most part are totally disconnected to any rock music after the mid to late '80's, and consider Nirvana to be "new" and not good, either. Fools. Granted, there is a lot of terrible music out there, but when has that not been the case? Music historians love to reminisce about the great '60's and '70's, but the decades that gave us the Beach Boys, Beatles, the first Led Zeppelin album ('60's) and Pink Floyd, more Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, the glory days of the Who, etc. ('70's) also gave us some of the most banal idiotic pop music ever, lest we forget abominations like B.J. Thomas, the Carpenters, John Denver and a host of other performers I'd just as soon forget. Of course your taste is your business, but my point is made. So when we dismiss "new" stuff past 1991, we overlook some terrible stuff, like Limp Bizkit and most nu-metal, rap and hip hop, and the usual terrible Top 40 crap. It's just harder to find the stuff you like because with the internet and a huge recording industry, the choices are much greater, and most decent bands spawn hundreds of clones. So I delve into new music through reviews mainly, and the occasional new tune on satellite radio, and I've been open minded enough to embrace some really great stuff. Clutch, Muse, High on Fire, Wire, Mastodon, Immortal, and others make exciting music that is worthy of any rock lover's attention. The newest band to cross my radar is Baroness, whom I knew about but like usual shoved them to the back of the pile until finally giving them a chance with the "Yellow and Green" album. I was floored. Now I have "Purple", and it is brilliant. After the near fatal bus crash in 2012 that severely injured leader John Baizley and turned his left upper arm into goulash, 11 broken pieces of his humerus and 20 to 30 pieces of hardware and severe nerve damage left behind to deal with, and with a lot of pain, we're lucky the band was able to return at all, albeit with a new drummer and bassist. For the horror of the crash, it's really astounding to hear the positive vibe of "Purple", an album that rocks a little harder than "Yellow and Green", but still has the signature atmosphere, heartfelt lyrics and hooks enough to outfit a fishing fleet. It's worthy of the immense praise it's already received, and shows that at least some current bands still know what makes an album great. You get a hint or two of fellow Georgians Mastodon if that equally great band was a bit less proggy and the thick guitars that don't waste a single note. Baizley is brilliant, and deserves to have this album be a huge seller. There's no excuse anybody who claims to love rock and roll not to check out Baroness.

The songs are good, really good; perhaps the best the band has done. But the 400 pound gorilla in the room is the piss poor mastering (I hope it was mastering and not in the mix). Its just so over compressed and nearly unlistenable. Which is a pity since Yellow and Green was so good. I love this band and I like these songs, but I have a hard time listening to this album. I wish they would release the unmastered final mixes from the recordings much like has become Steven Wilson's method of working.

With Baroness’ 2015 release Purple, they find themselves at the forefront of a new wave of (relatively) young bands within the sludge/stoner metal genres. Their previous release, 2012’s Yellow and Green, was met with an overall positive response but left some fans cold with what they felt was a lack of the intensity that the band’s preceding albums were rife with. After rebounding and recovering from a near-fatal bus crash while on tour in England, with two new members in tow (bassist Nick Jost and drummer Sebastian Thomson), Baroness have released what may be their most focused record to date. John Baizley and co. have upped the ante on the heaviness that Yellow and Green lacked while ratcheting up the intricacy of the songwriting.A ton of work was put into this album, detailed in a series of videos released by the band on their YouTube channel showing the recording process and featuring interviews of each member. John Baizley has been getting better and better as a singer, moving farther away from the throaty yells that had defined his voice in the group’s early work, but still maintaining the aggressiveness that he’s known for. The improvement of his singing voice works well as the group’s songwriting incorporates more singable melodies. The rest of the band sounds excellent as well, particularly drummer Sebastian Thomson, who pounds out some thundering rhythms and wild fills.Purple bursts out of the gate with the opening track “Morningstar”, a fiery rocker with a razor-sharp main riff and a tasty harmonized guitar solo. The single “Shock Me” is probably the most approachable song on the album, very melodic but still tempered with the intensity that Baroness is known for. Tight interplay among the musicians here, with some nice hi-hat barking from Thomson. The ultra-energized “Kerosene” is a major highlight, with furious rhythms, careening guitar patterns, and a soaring chorus. The ending to this one is especially powerful, with Baizley and lead guitarist Pete Adams’ harmonized vocals punctuating this track with a flattening climax.The album’s centerpiece, and my personal pick for best song of 2015, is “Chlorine & Wine.” This nearly 7-minute masterpiece opens with spacey keyboard progressions, and moves into an atmospheric Floydian groove with ethereal guitar melodies. From there, the track builds intensity with dense riffs and impassioned vocals from Baizley, eventually moving back into a quiet bridge, and then exploding over the top for a remarkable finale. The final two minutes of this tune, complete with all band members on vocals delivering the song’s moving coda, is some of the most powerful stuff I’ve heard on a metal release in a while.Aside from that, there are highlights aplenty. Listen to the propulsive beats of “Try to Disappear”, the muscular, driving riffs of “Desperation Burns”, and the grandiose album closer “If I Have to Wake Up (Would You Stop the Rain?)” and hear that this band is in top form. The members sound liberated and refreshed on this album, leaving the emotional trauma of the bus crash behind as they grind away on their instruments.Of course, it isn’t perfect. The production seems overly compressed (the drum sound is a little too processed for my tastes) and a few songs, in particular “The Iron Bell”, seem somewhat underdeveloped. But these complaints aren’t enough to stop Purple from being one of the best releases of 2015, not just in metal, but in any genre. The songwriting focus, the instrumental ability, and the emotional acuity of the band really shine through in this album. It’s as though the band took all of the elements that made their previous 3 albums great and coalesced them into one immensely satisfying 43 minute package. Their previous Red Album (2007) and especially Blue Record (2009) established Baroness as some of the brightest stars in today’s metal landscape, and Purple has showcased that the band is truly a force to be reckoned with.

People are not lying audio is bad on this one, upside comes with high quality mp3's.But the package is awesome, and so are the songs. Art is gorgeous, really impressed. Songs are also gorgeous. *Buy it, for 16 bucks when I got it is a steal.*

With a hue of their new aesthetic and a bit of their old bite, Baroness bounces back from their horrifying crash and produces one of their best outings to date. One could hope for a little instrumental exploration, but this is the best collection of individual songs they've put together. Rather than ruining the band, this turn towards songwriting has simply revealed another layer of this wonderful, ever evolving group.