Album Review: "Gold & Grey" by Baroness

BARONESS
*Gold & Grey*
(Abraxan Hymns)

Baroness's glorious new double album wastes no time announcing what it is all about: perseverance. Singer/guitarist/songwriter/artist John Baizley declares in the opener "Front Toward Enemy"--a hard-charging, bass-driven rocker--"we're headed for disaster...we can only fight front toward enemy." It's a frantic start to what turns out to be one of the most heart-felt hard rock albums of its time: this is about survival, hope and desperate measures, a theme that makes sense in the band's timeline after a near-death and life-changing bus accident in 2012.
The second album since that accident, 17 songs in length, establishes Baroness (Baizley as the only original member) as survivors. Baizley wails on the ever morphing rocker "Seasons," "we fall, we rise, we bend, we break, we burn, but we survive" before breaking into thrash riffage along with new guitarist Gina Gleason, Baizley's nimble foil whose interplay meshes perfectly with the band's uptempo and emotive instrumental aesthetic. 
Short, free-form instrumental explorations bridge the gaps between sprawling compositions, a highlight being "Tourniquet": "Somebody throw me a tourniquet, I'm openhearted." Once again, a thudding bassline provides the backbone to Baizley's wear-it-on-his-sleeve, full-throated singing. "Throw Me An Anchor" ups the hard-rock tempo and furthers the theme: "This is an emergency." The mid-tempo tracks on the album showcase the band's subtlety best: On the sprawling "Borderlines," the band's tightness is on display--evidenced by the dueling guitar solos and Baizley's plaintive realization: "Borderline, get me out alive...When it rains, I am right where I belong."
9/10
Appearing July 23, 2019, at Durty Nellie's in Palatine, IL
Link to print version of review in July 2019 issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine. Navigate PDF file to page 28.