Baroness announce new album share Chlorine & Wine

Progressive metallers Baroness return with first new material since 2012 accident

Just a month after the release of their last album Yellow & Green Baroness were struck by an unexpected jolt. Their tour bus crashed whilst they were on tour in the UK. It took them a year to get back on the road and now they’re back with a brand new album called Purple. It’s due out on 18 December via the band’s newly formed label Abraxan Hymns .

Produced by Flaming Lips collaborator Dave Fridmann, the album features a rejigged line-up owing to drummer Allen Blickle and bassist Matt Maggioni leaving the band shortly after their crash. Original Baroness member, guitarist/vocalists John Baizley and Pete Adams will be joined by bassist/keyboardist Nick Jost and drummer Sebastian Thomson of Trans Am on Purple.

Vocalist John Baizley offered the following statement: “After releasing a lengthy and investigative record like Yellow & Green we all felt that we needed to make something much more direct and immediate. We wanted to write with our normal focus on artistry, balanced against an increased level of energy and focus. It was important for us to write our new songs with the type of enthusiasm and expressiveness that could act as a counterpoint to the album’s dark themes. As a result, the music came out in an intense, heavy and sonically captivating in a new way, which was important, loathe, as we are to fall into any kind of complacency pitfall or formulaic songwriting routine. Purple is the most fully realized representation of our intention as a band; considering the amount of physical and mental energy spent writing it, we have accomplished something which would have seemed impossible to us a couple of years ago.”

Check out a quadrant of the album’s artwork (the rest will be revealed soon) and tracklist below and a short animated clip for Chlorine and Wine above.