Baroness - Yellow & Green

Published July 15 2012

*=Staff's pick

Yellow:
Yellow Theme
Take My Bones Away*
March To The Sea*
Little Things
Twinkler
Cocainium
Back Where I Belong*
Sea Lungs*
Eula

Green:
Green Theme*
Board Up The House
Mtns. (The Crown & Anchor)
Foolsong
Collapse
Psalms Alive
Stretchmaker
The Line Between*
If I Forget Thee, Lowcountry

Genre	Progressive Metal	John Baizley	Vocals
Tracks	18	Peter Adams	Guitar
Running time	40 Min.	John Baizley	Guitar
Label	Relapse Records	Matt Maggioni	Bass
Release	16 July 2012	Allen Blickle	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboard
Producer	John Congleton
Similar artists	Mastodon

I discovered Baroness when they released their Blue album in 2009. I immediately got hooked on their music - with elements from progressive metal, rock, hardcore and sludge - and having listened countless hours on their first two albums, their latest release Yellow & Green has been long awaited by me.

Yellow & Green takes another direction after the almost psychedelic Blue album. This is a more straightforward approach with more rock elements than before which initially gave me some doubts but the more I listened, the better it got. Songs like Take My Bones Away, Little Things and The Line Between felt almost too "friendly" in the beginning but there is a subtle brilliance that grows on you. Much thanks to the attention to detail, the fantastic melodies and the sharp production.

Comparing the two albums, I find Green to be the weaker of the two. It's perhaps a little too mellow and some of the songs fail to stand out although the melody in Green Theme is one of the best of the entire album suite. I should point out that this is in comparison with Yellow; Green is still really good but Yellow has an amazing quality throughout the entire album - it grabs me immediately and doesn't let go until Eula echoes out.

If I would judge the two albums individually I would probably give Yellow nine chalices and Green six and a half or seven. With this in mind, eight out of ten seems reasonable.These albums might grow even more on me and this is definitely one of the strongest releases of 2012 so far.