Baroness

The Red Album

Written by: TL on 15/01/2008 00:33:55

Ah yes, 2008. Admittedly the christmas and new years holidays provided a vast array of possibilities for procrastination. Now however, the staff members of rockfreaks have finally begun to untangle themselves of all the drunken stupidity and addictions to Guitar Hero 3 that the holidays brought upon us, and as such the steady flow of content should return. My first review of the year will, true to what seems like a tradition here, be a straggler from 2007, namely the debut of Baroness; \"The Red Album\". An album I lifted off AP\'s shoulders after he had been whining excessively about not knowing how to grade it for considerable lengths of time.

On \"The Red Album\", Baroness sets out to do more than the average. By casting aside all thoughts of conventional songstructure and going all out after a grander experimental expression, the band has its work cut out for it. Especially considering how their arrangements are very simplistic, relying mainly on the drums and a single guitar to provide a progressive drive in the songs while vocals are roared on top during the most explosive of passages. The songs are composed of long atmospheric periods filled with ambience and guitar effects that grow in presence until they explode into groovy and unnerving riffage. The mellow periods resembling darker versions of The Mars Volta\'s jazzy interludes while the heavy parts hint more at Tools grinding machinery.

The deal with The Red Album is easily cut out for you though. For the first handful of listens, there\'s plenty of things to keep your ears occupied in terms of interesting guitar effects and riffs, and during those initial listening sessions you easily get wound up in the atmosphere of the album. After that however, the desired depth of the album somehow stops appearing as deep. It becomes clear that apart from the contrast between the mellow and the loud parts, there seems to be little left for the listener to be interested in. The fascination with the cool guitar parts starts wearing off, and it becomes increasingly apparent, that for an album of this level of ambition, \"The Red Album\" simply isn\'t layered enough compared to releases like The Receiving End Of Sirens\'s \"The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi\". As a consequence \"The Red Album\" ends up like an album that\'ll tickle your interest for a while and then be put aside as something that\'s pretty good but not exactly a life-changing listening experience.

7

For the fans of: Kylesa, Tool, Amplifier,

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Release Date 10.09.07
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Provided By Target ApS

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