BARONESS: FIRST & SECOND (2004-2005)
1) Tower Falls; 2) Coeur; 3)
Rise; 4) Red Sky; 5) Son Of Sun; 6) Vision.
First of all, I have no clue as to why these
guys call themselves «Baroness» — it cannot be excluded that one or more of
them have those subconscious hots for Margaret Thatcher, but it sure as heck
wouldn't have much to do with the music, which blends the conservative
framework of heavy metal with the liberal framework of math-rock and is
consequently of a neutral nature. There does not seem to be any heavy excess of
barons or baronesses in Savannah, Georgia, either, so, ultimately, the name may
have simply been chosen in order to distance themselves from their surroundings
— the surroundings of yet another band from the Deep South that would do everything
in its power to avoid reminding us of their local roots.
Actually, in this way they only followed the
example of their direct predecessor, Mastodon (from Atlanta, Georgia), whose
slightly inferior copy version they are sometimes stated to be. Which is not
entirely true: although Baroness naturally owe a heavy debt to Mastodon, they
have plenty of ideas of their own, or, at the very least, they combine the ideas
plundered from Mastodon with ideas plundered from other artists (which sounds
like a slur, but in reality is merely a way of describing the working manners
of about 90% of the people reviewed here).
John Baizley's growling vocals excluded, the
music of Baroness really falls more in the «math-rock» than stereotypical heavy
metal category. Although each of the band's first two EPs, released in 2004
and 2005 and later packed together on a one-CD edition from 2008, formally consists
of three tracks, all three are seamlessly joined together and seem to represent
three different movements of a single «electric guitar symphony» rather than
separate entities. And the symphonies in question place more emphasis on
complexity, density, and unpredictability of their sound than on «heaviness» as
such: no matter how distorted the guitar tones get, or how closely Baizley's vocals
approach the mating calls of a stone troll, neither First nor (even less) Second
have a truly «metallic» feel to them. Altogether, in order to appreciate this
music, one has to appeal to that particular brain department which is
responsible for your chess skills, rather than the one that urges you to play
the Necromancer campaign in Heroes of
Might & Magic.
The lyrics, mostly coming in short, spasmodic,
frequently unfinished phrases, do have a slightly medieval / fantasy pull
rather than, for instance, the «science rock» flair of BATS: the very title of
the first track, ʽTower Fallsʼ, and its constant references to burning,
pressing soil into dust, and «nothing will ever return», shows the expectable
taste for dramatic flashiness. But the music itself shows nothing of the kind:
both Baizley and the second guitarist, Tim Loose, generally avoid screechy,
mock-cathartic tones, setting their axes to sludgy «grumble-and-growl» moods,
sometimes with an acid tone overhaul. This does not work well for immediate
memorability, but it also helps them avoid many of the usual metal clichés —
and convert those listeners who are initially predisposed to appreciating
«intelligent» rather than «heartfelt» heaviness.
The downside is that, for all of this
«intelligence», pretty much every song on here is played with the exact same
intellectual — and emotional — message. The different «movements» shuffle fast
and slow tempos without any clear guiding principles, but fast or slow, all the
sections have a similar feel of what I could describe as «light-gray
melancholia», inherited by these guys not so much from their metal ancestors as
from their indie-rock influences. Maybe the worst thing about these EPs is that
this kind of music is often salvageable by its inlaid sense of musical humor,
yet Baroness show no sense of humor whatsoever. The mission — to save metal-based
music from its corny conventions and make it more academically respectable, so
to speak — is indeed noble (although it is always a puzzle to me why so many of
these noble efforts are ultimately still spoiled by the obstinate reliance on
growling vocals), but the resulting music, technical respect apart, is still
way too samey and, in the end, too boring to generate genuine excitement. And
the fact that First and Second, from the very outset, present a
well-formed, confident, professional sound means very little — these days, most bands in these genres start out
with a well-formed, confident, professional sound, or else they do not start
out in the first place.
Check "First & Second" (CD) on Amazon
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