In 2019 baroness Mastermind John Bailey concluded a 12-year conceptual work with the release of the fifth album Gold & Grey. But as he said Program Back then, he was more excited than intimidated about where the band might go next. Years before the record year of 2023 Stone took shape, Baizley described an approach to art that is undoubtedly progressive.
John Dyer Baizley is what you might call a modern-day Renaissance man. As the only permanent member of Baroness since its formation in Savannah, Georgia 16 years ago, he not only continues to direct the band’s musical production with passion and creativity, but also designs their beautiful, vibrant album cover. The band’s new, fifth album Gold & Grey closes the chapter of a 12-year-long, color-coded mega-concept. What could be more progressive than that?
Despite all their progressive tendencies, Baroness initially leaned more towards prog’s arch-enemy, punk rock, and were active in the Georgian metal scene in the 2000s alongside bands like Mastodon – another band that found a home in the prog world – and Black Tusk.
“We liked punk and classic rock like Thin Lizzy and Led Zeppelin, but we were always interested in more offbeat bands,” explains guitarist and singer Baizley, naming Camel, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Steve Reich and Comus. It’s clear that this man is seriously passionate about all kinds of music across a wide and varied spectrum.
“Baroness uses a lot of musical devices, rhythms and ideas that come from prog, but we just took ideas from everything we heard. We didn’t realise we were doing things like playing in odd time signatures,” he explains. “We took influences from all sorts of sources: from the Ramones to the most bizarre, technical stuff we could find.”
I was very careful not to fall into traditional conceptual clichés: the records were never about characters we didn’t know.
On their five albums since 2007 – Red Album, Blue record, Yellow-green, Purple and now Gold & Grey – Baroness have evolved their sound to a point where it’s now instantly recognisable: led by Baizley’s captivating accent, they make progressive sludge that’s both dizzyingly technical and blindingly beautiful, a rich sound that’s somehow simultaneously unpredictable yet carefully controlled. And it’s all been created around one concept – working through the shades of a traditional colour wheel, taking a leaf out of Led Zeppelin’s book.
“I’ve always had this love affair with the first four Led Zeppelin records and I love how simple and efficient the titles were,” Baizley explains. “How they didn’t explain anything about the music, but there was a numerology to it, so you felt like the records were a set. But even when I said Led Zeppelin II or IV it would bring to mind this vast world of records that contained no clue except a number.
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“Colors were my visual language. When we talked about concepts, I was very careful not to fall into traditional conceptual cliches: the records were never about characters we didn’t know. The songs were all about personal things in my life, but we chose a more poetic language. Then we found that the records would take on some of the loose ideologies and concepts of those colors; it was fun to do that.”
Given Baizley’s connection to the visual, it’s no surprise that he designs elaborate artwork for the covers of all Baroness albums, as well as for other artists such as Kvelertak and Kylesa. A student of art history, his style is like a mix of Art Nouveau and heavy metal – vibrant paintings depict women, animals and nature, with the color palette of each cover correlating with its title.
“Both musically and artistically, my style is a byproduct of my open-mindedness and my constant attempt to subvert the usual use of images, colors or symbols,” Baizley explains. “I take images that you and I and everyone – regardless of culture, gender, social or political background – would recognize. Such images tend to become overloaded with meaning over time, so I twist them to tell a unique story.”
You put people in a room and we’re all celebrating, we’re all crying, we’re all singing, whatever. But then you ask yourself, “Is there more?” and I’d like to think there is.
“The end goal is for the audience to recognize something familiar, but ultimately be shown something that hopefully has an element of novelty in it; that makes you question every version of that reference point. That’s ambitious… but why not be ambitious!?”
Regarding the Gold & Grey On the cover, Baizley mentions symbols from the lyrics, numerology, east meets west, a north-south axis… but he doesn’t want to give too much away. “I don’t want to say too much,” he says. “I don’t want to spoil anyone’s experience. The people trying to put their own meaning into it have given me the justification to keep doing it. That’s the goal: to create something that makes people think.”
“You put people in a room and we’re all celebrating, we’re all crying, we’re all singing, whatever. But then you ask yourself, ‘Is there more?’ and I’d like to think there is.”
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Gold & Grey is a 17-song summary of the Baroness sound that, Baizley points out, doesn’t make sense until you’ve heard it at least four times. “I really want to push against our audience, against ourselves, against our producer, against expectations – and see how far I can take it before it collapses,” says Baizley.
“When you’re younger, you don’t have that feeling; you tend to overwork songs. So we got to the point where it was too much and then I think we stopped. We wanted to do something we’d never heard anyone do before: something that made us feel a little bit alien with our instruments.
“There is an element of weirdness in almost every song on the record,” says Baizley about Gold & Grey“In a song that Sebastian (Thomson, drummer) and I wrote, TourniquetSebastian went with 4/4 time with a kick drum on every fifth beat. It’s fucking weird! Gina (Gleason, guitar) and I played these dense chord clusters where everything I played was an inversion of what she played.
“It’s such a complex record. If you like guitar, give Cold-blooded angels Let’s see if you can figure it out. If you can, I’ll take my hat off to you, because Gina and I can hardly figure out how we did it!”
Dealing with the aftermath of the accident was such a complicated matter that I could hardly put it into words. But through music I found a platform
Gold & Grey is the first release with the new Baroness line-up: Gleason, who had been touring with Jon Anderson, joined in 2017; Nick Jost (bass) and Thomson joined in 2013, when the future of Baroness was still uncertain. The year before, just a month after the release of Yellow-greenThe band was involved in a serious tour bus accident in Bath, UK. Fortunately, there were no fatalities, but Baizley broke his arm and leg and was unsure if he would or could ever play music again. The other members at the time left the band soon after.
“I’m not saying it’s good or bad, but everything in my life now revolves around this moment,” says Baizley. “It was dramatic, long-lasting and had a very negative impact on me both physically and mentally. Thankfully, it doesn’t seem to have had any negative creative impact.” Purple (2015) was my platform for rehabilitation, and it seems to me that Gold & Grey offers me the opportunity for self-observation and reflection on what has happened.”
Did the aftermath of such a traumatic event ever make him give up Baroness? “It was painful, but never too painful,” he says firmly. “Apart from my family, I was sure that music was the one thing I shouldn’t give up. Dealing with the aftermath of that event was such a complicated, labyrinthine affair that I can hardly put it into words. But through music, through the arts, I found a platform to express those thoughts and feelings. So for me, music really has been a support.”
If you look at a color wheel, you will see that orange is next to red. The cover of Gold & Grey bursting with orange tones and closes the chapter of the cycle that began with Red Album in 2007. So where does Baizley plan to take Baroness next once this project is complete?
We could make a thrash record, something electronic, something relaxed, something heavy and aggressive, maybe a bit of everything!
“I’m as curious as anyone else!” he laughs. “I’ve spent 12 years thinking about this idea every time I’ve released a record. This is the first time in my career that I haven’t looked to the future.”
“I think with Gold & Greyone of the most important things we did was to release a record that would give us a lot of scope in the immediate future as to what our next album could be. We could do a thrash record, an electronic record, something chilled, something heavy and aggressive, maybe a bit of everything!
“In the immediate future we still need to sit down and figure out how to play all these new songs. An important aspect of Baroness is that we see ourselves as a live band. To live up to our own expectations we have to play with quite a high intensity, energy and technical level and it’s a record that you can only play if you are fully aware of what you are doing. It’s a trip!”
