Gavin Good

Hard rockers Baroness are back in full-steam with their new record Gold & Grey. Now armed with Philadelphia guitarist Gina Gleason following Pete Adams’ departure, she helps cement their persona as a heavy metal group from her time with a Metallica tribute group–known as Misstallica–while keeping true to the band’s progressive roots. Thoughtful interludes spaced between heavy, charged tracks makes the listener realize the bygone art form of balance is vital to a consistent release. Put simply, the band keeps these two extremes uniform with their psychedelic Pink Floyd influence. Notable highlights are “Front Towards Enemy”, “Broken Halo” and lead single “Borderlines”; each track is enriched with reverb-heavy harmonic vocal calls backed by smooth bass grooves.

Over the last ten years, hard rock acts had since been on a decline, with many migrating towards an electronic direction. As we enter the next decade, Baroness may just have figured out the key to bringing rock back into the mainstream. Perhaps all it took was looking to the classics and building something else with fresh hands.