I've been bothering you two (who I assume are the only ones reading this, that is until the awesomeness of my music taste shatters the internet) about this band for a couple of years now. And this will be the last time, but if these guys were ever going to break through for you, this is the record for it. Seems like all of the emerging bands around the metal scene have run screaming from metal in the last year or so--Opeth, Mastodon, now Baroness. Though I guess only Opeth was really a full-on metal band, all 3 have taken pretty dramatic left turns with the new records away from either the heavy (Opeth) or complex (Mastodon) aspects of their music. For me, Baroness' transition sounds the most natural by far; it isn't a repudiation of their past, nor is it a pure dumbing down of their sound for mass consumption. Instead, it's a maturity in their songwriting and new confidence in their vocals, accentuated to the exclusion (almost entirely) of the long-form guitar freakouts that made the Red Album so interesting (and may have prevented you guys and others from really engaging with the band). I loved the extended intros/outros on Red Album tracks like the Birthing, but on Yellow and Green they basically decided to write good songs instead of really bad-ass riffs or parts, and it works. Pretty fucking well. It's hard to say what it sounds like besides Baroness, but I guess maybe some touchstones could be Failure, Cave-In, Torche, and there's still a bit of the Mastodon influence hanging around. It's not perfect by any means, but well worth your time, and the thing I've listened to the most in the recent batch of shit I've purchased--others of which I'll try to write up later.
Listen to first:
Eula--above all others. On their last record they put out my favorite piece of music from 2010, "Steel that Sleeps the Eye/Swollen and Halo." This song will compete for the spot this year.
Baroness-Eula
March to the Sea
Baroness--March to the Sea
Take My Bones Away
Baroness-Take My Bones Away
-I believe these two are the lead singles, and it's not hard to see why. They'll get embedded in your mind within about 2 listens.
Also:
Collapse
Board Up the House
The Line Between
Dude, im into it. Both singles are pretty great. March to the sea has burrowed into my head and is on repeat.
ReplyDeleteI can see why you are such a big fan of Eula. I definitely dig the song and after a few more listens I can see it growing on me.
These are strong enough to make me want to buy this album and also to give the red album another shot
Ok, you win. Eula is awesome.
ReplyDeleteYeah man it's a stunner. Glad you're digging it. They're over in Europe now, but I think they'll do a full U.S. tour in support of this one, worth checking out. I'm interested to see how they hold up vocally live, they kind of struggled with the couple of cleaner parts last time I saw them (of which there were much fewer than there will be this time around).
ReplyDeleteThat System show was last night. They sounded REALLY good but it was actually kind of short, which is strange for them. Deftones only played for like 45 minutes too.
Eula is a great song (and I am someone who has a hesitant approach to any metal or metal-adjacent genre).
ReplyDeleteAny songs by Mastodon that are like Eula?
Mastodon not so much, even the newest one still is essentially hard rock even if I wouldn't say it's metal anymore. Maybe try Oblivion from Crack the Skye, and The Hunter, which is the title track of their last record.
ReplyDeleteI think you are more likely to dig on the movement from Baroness' last record that I mentioned above, Steel that Sleeps the Eye/Swollen and Halo from the Blue Record. Another record that comes to mind when I listen to Eula is Cave-In's Jupiter. Check out Requiem and Innuendo and Out the Other from that record for sure.
I picked up Yellow and Green last week..it is unbelievable. Despite Bones, March, and Eula all being on the Yellow side of the album I might like the green side better. The tracks that jumped out at me from the green side are MTNS, Board Up the House, Psalms Alive and the StretchMaker lead into The Line Between is pretty bad ass.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I keep thinking their sound is a cross between My Morning Jacket and Scars on Broadway. Great band man....glad that you kept at it with these guys