Baroness-First/Second Re-press

Baroness is a band that is unique in the heavy music scene. They are sludgy, metallic, and have obscure lyrics, but i can't really say that they fit into any sort of genre very easily. They have the sludge elements, but aren't as heavy as Harvey Milk, Salome, or Electric Wizard. They have speedy, technical parts, but don't sound like Atheist, Cynic, or BTBAM. They have a singer who does all the artwork, but so does Converge. They're from Georgia but they don't sound like Mastodon, Norma Jean, or Kylesa (well, maybe Kylesa and Baroness sound a bit similar). Anyways, i dig this band, despite the inability of their music to be easily categorized. And whose idea was it to use words to describe music in the first place? We have adjectives and adverbs and an abundance of both, but at the end of the day, one still has to listen to the album or band in question in order to know how he or she feels about the style and substance of a band or artist.

So, after all that verbage, we have Baroness, a band whose name serves to exemplify the large, heavy, and expansive style of music that they play (see, here i go with those words again). To my trained ear, these albums sound heavier and fuller than their later "Red" and "Blue" records. John's vocals are more guttural and raw than the restrained screaming (?) he does on the band's later albums. And the songs are all heavy. There are no acoustic interludes as there are on the full-lengths. Perhaps this is due to the fact that these were originally two EPs which were combined on this Hyperrealist re-press. Of the two individual EPs, i think i slightly prefer "Second," but again, both are worth repeated listens. i think that my favorite track of the compilation is the opener to the second side, "Red Sky."
 
The vinyl and packaging are beautiful. John Baizley's art is sehr gut, and the gatefold looks top notch. The release was (is?) available in either olive green or red vinyl. i went with the green, which looks incredible. Marble accents in the vinyl finish off an astounding layout design for this release. If you didn't listen to this album at all, it'd still be a nice piece of art to own.

Of course, records are for music, dummy, and the music here is astounding. It's Baroness, numbskull; of course it's good! Pick this up now through Hyperrealist or kick yourself later.