YELLOW & GREEN

"New musical direction" is perhaps the scariest combination of three words to fans of any band, but for my part Baroness' three year metamorphosis after the competent sludgefest Blue Record is a convincing and worthwhile experiment, though as time goes by it feels increasingly like it's suffering from the old disease of double albums - namely, that there's enough really compelling ideas here for a super-intense single album spread out thinly over two discs.

Sonically, it's strange amalgam of stoner metal and the heaviest end of psychedelia, with a few spacier moments - I detected at points passages reminiscent of an odd mashup of Meddle-era and Animals-era Pink Floyd, and elsewhere a few moments a lot like Popul Vuh - though the album is saved from becoming a nostalgia-fest by taking on musical influences from much more recent subgenres. On the Yellow disc in particular much of this ends up being a particular aesthetic achieved by the tuning, engineering and production - when you strip aside the surface aesthetic there's some pretty standard but fun hard rock songs underpinning all this.

There's a few crescendos here and there which are highly reminiscent of metalcore, some musical passages where I honestly couldn't tell whether I was listening to a guitar riff or an electronic pulse, and overall the album offers a dizzying combination of musical genres. When it works, it works pretty well - at other times, it feels like they're throwing lots of ideas at the wall and seeing which ones stick.

"Yellow & Green" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US sludge rock/metal act Baroness. The album was released through Relapse Records in July 2012. Baroness are quite the adventurous act and over the course of their first two albums "Red Album (2007)" and "Blue Record (2009)", they have gone from being a sophisticated sludge act to incorporating stoner, rock´n´roll and 70s hard rock elements to their sound. Not completely unlike the development that a contemporary act like Mastodon also have been through.

This time around Baroness have focused even more on accessibility (even occasionally touching maintream appeal) than ever before. Most tracks are vers/chorus structured with only few excursions beyond that formula and the choruses are catchy and for the most part leave a lasting impression. The raw shouting vocals, which were already sparse on "Blue Record (2009)" are now completely gone from the band´s music. Instead the vocals are clean with an occasional rough edge, but often layered with distorting effects.

"Yellow & Green" is a double album. The first disc is titled "Yellow" and the second disc is titled "Green". So there are about 75 minutes of music to digest. Personally I find "Yellow" slightly more interesting than "Green". There are simply more tracks on "Yellow" that stand out. Highlights are tracks like "Take My Bones Away" and "Cocainium" but the quality of the tracks are more or less consistent throughout. Few real highs and few real lows.

While I can see the drawing of what Baroness want to achive with "Yellow & Green" I don´t think the mission is fully accomplished. It´s like they lack the last conviction in the delivery and the songwriting could be better and more defined too. The fact that lead vocalist/guitarist John Baizley isn´t in possession of the most interesting voice is a minor issue too. When that is said "Yellow & Green" is still a well produced, well played and for the most part well written album and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

All of Baroness' albums from "The Blue Album" back to the beginning (including the EPs) were top notch, inventive and amazing Prog Metal albums with a lot of emotion, and with as much instrumental music as vocal music. Yes it is very heavy music, but with a lot of progressive elements and very imaginative. The vocals were close to growling, but they still had a very melodic quality to them that made them all the more emotional in the same way that Devin Townsend's growling vocals are. I highly recommend any of those albums.

This album, called "Yellow & Green" is actually a double album, hence the title with two colors. Just one month after the release of this album, the members in the band were all injured in a bus accident, and it looked like this would be the demise of the band, but they all recovered from very serious injuries and started touring again. Not long after this however, two of the members left the band, but two other musicians soon joined the band and touring continued.

So, with this album, Baroness takes a turn towards a more accessible sound. You can't really say this is a progressive record, but it is a great heavy metal album nevertheless. I still enjoy the music on this album, there are still plenty of high points on the album, they just aren't progressive aspects anymore. The vocals are now cleaner, but unfortunately, they tend to lose the emotion they used to possess. The vocalist is still the same as on the past albums, he is just singing cleaner. The guitar work is absolutely awesome. You could pretty much say that the "Yellow" disc is more on the heavier side with a few mellower sections added in, and the "Green" disc has more softer and mellower tracks with a few heavy sections, especially towards the middle part. But, overall it has lost it's progressive heart, and that is a shame because this is an excellent band. In fact, I actually increased "The Red Album" to a 5 star album now after listening to it several times and gaining a better respect for it. Unfortunately, I can't be so generous to the "Yellow & Green" album simply because it is not progressive enough. Amazing harmonies, excellent guitar work, great instrumentation, but I miss the progressiveness of the older albums, the power and emotion. It is an excellent heavy metal album, but only a good but non-essential album in progressive terms.