Baroness: Metal just a starting point for music without boundaries
Most bands have a pretty clear understanding of what kind of music they make, even if they don’t subscribe to the idea of being in a particular genre. Singer-guitarist John Baizley of Baroness goes a step further. To pin down what the Georgia quartet does would mean the death of the band, he insists.
“It wasn’t clear what we would sound like back when we first got together, and it’s not clear today what we will sound like tomorrow,” he says. “The one clear foundation stone was an open-mindedness to incorporating new things, a desire to refrain from repetition, a real interest in keeping ourselves challenged. I’ve seen bands where the fire goes out of the music after a few years because they pin things down too much. We have instilled some safeguards to forestall that as long as possible.”
Baizley doesn’t say this with an air of superiority or smugness. What he communicates is a genuine enthusiasm for a wide range of music, an enthusiasm that comes across in Baroness’ two albums, “The Red Album” (2007) and “The Blue Record” (2009). Both have been embraced on the progressive tip of the metal community, but also contain elements of acoustic folk, psychedelia, dense harmony singing and avant-garde music. Comparisons have been made to everything from Radiohead to fellow Georgians Mastodon, all equally unhelpful in identifying exactly what Baroness sounds like. Suffice to say, the band is a moving target, with songs that seep one into the next with a strong sense of melody and broad sense of dynamics – from metallic roar to autumnal whisper -- but little regard for conventional structure. Good stuff, but also an impediment to an industry that insists on slotting bands into genres.
“It wasn’t clear what we would sound like back when we first got together, and it’s not clear today what we will sound like tomorrow,” he says. “The one clear foundation stone was an open-mindedness to incorporating new things, a desire to refrain from repetition, a real interest in keeping ourselves challenged. I’ve seen bands where the fire goes out of the music after a few years because they pin things down too much. We have instilled some safeguards to forestall that as long as possible.”
Baizley doesn’t say this with an air of superiority or smugness. What he communicates is a genuine enthusiasm for a wide range of music, an enthusiasm that comes across in Baroness’ two albums, “The Red Album” (2007) and “The Blue Record” (2009). Both have been embraced on the progressive tip of the metal community, but also contain elements of acoustic folk, psychedelia, dense harmony singing and avant-garde music. Comparisons have been made to everything from Radiohead to fellow Georgians Mastodon, all equally unhelpful in identifying exactly what Baroness sounds like. Suffice to say, the band is a moving target, with songs that seep one into the next with a strong sense of melody and broad sense of dynamics – from metallic roar to autumnal whisper -- but little regard for conventional structure. Good stuff, but also an impediment to an industry that insists on slotting bands into genres.
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