COLOUR WHEEL
Purple It’s wonderful when a highly anticipated metal record turns out to be really worth the wait. People have been hyping up Baroness’s new release, Purple, like crazy, and with good reason. The group were in a near-fatal bus accident in 2012 that resulted in two members getting seriously injured and leaving the group; whether Baroness would ever record again was up in the air. It’s a good thing they decided to, though: Purple has just as much energy and power as the group’s older work, but with a more refined and mature sound. Guitarist Pete Adams has said that “We didn’t want to make a mellow, sad, dark thing. We needed to be uptempo. We needed to be melodic, and it also needed to be aggressive.” It’s an apt description of how the record flows; every song stands along as a catchy, heavy hymn to psychedelia, while also working together in the cohesive way that marks a good album. “Chlorine & Wine” is classic Baroness goodness, full of heaviness and gigantic choruses. If you’ve loved Baroness’s previous work, or if you are new to the group but love psych metal or more accessible heavy bands like Saviours and Mastodon, this is a must-hear. (Abraxan Hymns, yourbaroness.com)
WHAT WAS THE RECORDING PROCESS LIKE?
I would start by saying every recording we’ve done has been different— this one was very different because we had a higher budget, a little more time in the studio, and, with regards to the last record, we had much less space to fill. To have more time to record gave us the flexibility to really sort of dig into each song and make sure that every single idea that we had and every single concept we could possibly chase down was explored.
HOW DID PURPLE COME ABOUT AS THE TITLE/THEME?
We’ve done a variety of records that are named after colours — it’s a method that we have chosen to catalogue our output. We wanted to move away from it, but it seemed to fit the bill in this case, so we used it to our advantage. It can be intellectualized and you can find metaphors, or you can view it in the arbitrary visual way to talk about the music. It’s up to fans to decide how much meaning and importance you want to place on it. ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER