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Baroness
*Purple*
(Abraxan Hymns)
The latest Baroness album represents a triumphant comeback. After releasing the landmark 18-song double-album *Yellow & Green* in 2012, the band suffered a bus accident while on tour, leading to the eventual departure of two members. The melodic hard rock on the 10-track *Purple* album does not show signs of this past trauma or a divergence of the band’s aesthetic due to its reformation. The band already outgrew its “sludge metal” descriptor albums ago. In fact, this might be the band’s best effort to date. Lead singer/guitarist John Baizley--also an accomplished painter/artist of his own band’s album covers and dozens of other metal bands--exuberantly sings every line above the high-energy guitar-driven tempos. “Shock Me” “Try To Disappear,” “Kerosene” (which starts off with Mastodon-like chiming guitars), “Chlorine & Wine” and “The Iron Bell” are all standout hard-rock tracks, as good as any Baroness has released in the past. “Fugue” is a beguiling instrumental track, and “If I Have To Wake Up (Would You Stop The Rain?)” is a slow-build ballad that is both melancholy and uplifting.
9/10
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