#23: Baroness - Red AlbumExploring both ends of the Baroness spectrum, with the more accessible and toned-down Yellow & Green, and the heavier, jagged Red, as well as the recent comfortable middle between the two, Purple, has given me a lot of appreciation for this band. There's a core underlying sound they have, but they're also competent enough songwriters to take it in a different direction with every release and still have tons of variety on each record.
Red, which is their first full-length, is certainly the heaviest Baroness album I have, though I wouldn't say it's really especially heavy, and it's also, interestingly, the least vocal-driven. Four of the tracks here are completely instrumental, and most of the rest have a strong instrumental focus with occasional bits of hard-edged vocals from Baizley. I definitely think this works in the album's favor as while the vocals tend to be nicely intense when they come in, they're not the greatest; having them in small moments to accentuate the heavier parts of the tracks makes them work about as good as they could.
There's a certain southern rock twang to the guitar lines that permeates pretty much the entire album; Cockroach en Fleur in particular is a weird mixture of classical guitar and a very twangy guitar line that creates quite a captivating mix. A good chunk of the rest of the guitar lines on the album have a similar though not as strong vibe to them, but it's one thing that really gives this album a lot of its unique flavor.
The other most notable thing about this album is the drumming. 'Cause... damn, it's impressive. There's this drum break in The Birthing that's just really intense, and the rest of the track as well has some nice frantic drumming going on throughout. Wailing Wintry Wind is basically a 6-minute showcase of the drumming, set to the tune of an escalating build; the drums take this downbeat atmospheric track and transform it into an intense, energetic thrill ride, without destroying the more relaxed mood of the rest of the instruments. Teeth of a Cogwheel also has pretty intense drumming throughout, especially a bit that sounds almost like something you'd hear in an industrial track, clanking of metal and thumping toms. Really though the drums are the other half of what really works about this album.
I do think that the high guitar and drums presence does sideline the bass pretty heavily, though; the bass has its moments, sure, but they're far and few between and generally not especially notable.
The small amount of progressive flair that this album does have is utilized pretty well; The Birthing builds on a 5/4 riff that has a sort of rambling mood to it, it never feels like the song is constrained to a strict time signature until about halfway through. Wanderlust has a nice 7/8 instrumental break in the middle which I may like just because 7/8 is the best time signature, but it's a pretty cool groove regardless. There isn't a whole lot of prog on this album in general, only a few moments outside of these two tracks, but it's a small touch that adds to the album a lot.
Another touch that really makes this album work is its roughness. These songs sort of feel like rough drafts, polished juuust enough to be cohesive while still sounding pretty raw. The songs that focus on buildup do so pretty much front-to-back, but in a way that you don't really notice how long the build is because it's interesting every step of the way. All three of the build-focused tracks reach a satisfying and intense climax, too, especially Grad which is just so majestic and triumphant, that horn really makes the ending.
And the rest of the tracks are generally an odd patchwork of three or so main melodies or riffs, with enough small variations to keep anything from getting stale and stitched together just right to have a sense of progression even in their repetition; tracks like The Birthing, Isak, and Wanderlust exemplify this the most, repeating a few main motifs quite a lot with small variations that keep them fresh. And it helps that the motifs repeated tend to be pretty dang good; the only guitar line I don't really care much for is the first main motif of Wanderlust, but it's not bad or anything, just kind of mediocre. It doesn't drag the whole song down too much, though.
The short tracks are the only ones that really break from this formula, not really having the time to do so, but even then they all still have that raw sound to them. Cockroach en Fleur could be a weird guitar jam one of the band members plucked out and put to record on the first take. Teeth of a Cogwheel feels a bit underdeveloped, not going far beyond its one main motif, though there's this weirdly effective guitar solo that could've been basically anything and sound like a first take they just stuck with. O'Appalachia is basically just one of the longer tracks with the instrumental breaks cut out, two or three main motifs and some pretty intense vocals that make for a cohesive and brief track.
Really the only slightly disposable track here is Aleph, which is still notable for having probably the "sludgiest" and most sluggish feel to it, though it mostly just feels incomplete; like there should be a vocal verse or two in the heavier parts, and as well the ending is a bit... abrupt and awkward. There's also that untitled bonus track which is a brief jam after 10 minutes of silence that I've listened to probably once ever and am not factoring into this review, so.
On the whole, this is a strong and rather colorful album; I wouldn't particularly say there are any "standout" tracks here, and barely any weak spots, even the weakest track here is still quite solid, it's just a consistently high bar that gets met by the majority of the music here. Each song has its own unique feel to it as well which is what gives the album its wide palette despite its rather short runtime, there's really no wasted space here at all. The album even has quite a strong flow to it, both in the way the tracks segue into each other and the different moods each conveys. It's an album where I can't go far beyond nitpicking to point out any flaws, but one I'm never especially thrilled by either, just really solid and consistently enjoyable.
Favorite Tracks: Rays on Pinion, Grad, The Birthing, Isak, Teeth of a Cogwheel
Least Favorite Track: Aleph
8/10DTF Addendum: I think what this album lacks that later Baroness albums have in spades is emotional potency. The music here is pretty great but it's not as... powerful, as anything off Yellow or Green, or even Purple. I'm not familiar enough with Blue yet to know where it stands on the spectrum but I have a feeling it's about halfway between Red and Yellow, or at least that's what everyone makes it sound like. Not that this makes Red a worse album or anything, clearly. First 8 of the list, yo.