BARONESS will release its sixth album, “Stone”, on September 15 via Abraxan Hymns.
BARONESS frontman John Baizley comments: “An important through line in BARONESS is we don’t like to repeat ourselves. It’s all about the willingness to take risks. When I was younger, the whole point of music was to be different, not to do the same thing, and not to listen to parents or play by the rules. That’s kind of goofy, but in practice, it works. It’s really sort of terrifying to be at the sixth record in your career and think that you’ll have to keep up with your history rather than continually invent. So, we doubled down on continuously inventing to see where it takes us. I think this record is a good reflection of that. ‘Stone’ is a lot more alive, more direct.”
That voluntary evolution brought the now Philadelphia-meets-Brooklyn based band to the border town of Barryville, New York. Electing to produce “Stone” themselves, the members of BARONESS spent a month shrouded amidst the pines, holed up in a vacation rental that became an impromptu recording space replete with big, vaulted ceilings, hardwood floors, and brick/glass walls. While they wrote “Stone”, Baizley recorded and pre-mixed it in real time, giving each song on “Stone” its own sonic treatment. After the group finished tracking drums, guitars, and bass, they took everything back to Baizley‘s basement studio to record vocals before handing the album off to mix master Joe Barresi (KYUSS, TOOL) and mastering guru Bob Ludwig (LED ZEPPELIN, NIRVANA).
“The recording process was completely self-contained,” adds drummer Sebastian Thomsen. “Having just the four of us in a rented house in the mountains for a month resulted in not only a cohesive and authentic sound, but also an intense collective mentality.”
“I think we were able to strip everything away on this record,” guitarist Gina Gleason shares. “We were unified in that. So, we just jumped in and did our best. That felt really good. It was a really cool, empowering, creative experience.”
The band offer a preview of the stirring new album with today’s release of “Last Word” and its accompanying Nick Jost-directed video.
“I had been developing this process for video and animation, and this being our first self-produced album, we thought, ‘Why not extend that ethos to the video, too?'” explains the BARONESS bass player. “It was really nerve racking to direct and create my first music video, but having a lifetime of nightmares and a love for strange animation turned out to be very useful.”
“Stone” pre-orders and pre-saves are available now. The album features original cover art by John Baizley and is available on a variety of formats, including an indie exclusive LP and ten limited-edition custom vinyl variants themed after each song on the album and designed by Baizley himself, as well as CD, a limited-edition deluxe CD featuring a bonus disc of live tracks recorded on the “Your Baroness” tour, and a limited blue cassette.
“Stone” track listing:
01. Embers
02. Last Word
03. Beneath The Rose
04. Choir
05. The Dirge
06. Anodyne
07. Shine
08. Magnolia
09. Under The Wheel
10. Bloom
BARONESS has simultaneously announced the “Sweet Oblivion” tour, a seven-week trek that sees the band traversing North America this fall. Tickets are on sale Friday, June 23 at 10 a.m. local time, with BARONESS bringing along some of their favorite bands, including JESUS PIECE, PORTRAYAL OF GUILT, PRIMITIVE MAN, KEN MODE, WAYFARER, CHAT PILE, VILE CREATURE, SOUL GLO, SHEER MAG, ESCUELA GRIND, MIDWIFE, HOAXED, EMPIRE STATE BASTARD, CLOUD RAT, IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT, UNIFORM and AGRICULTURE, with more support acts to be announced.
Tour dates:
Oct. 13 – Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Sound Stage
Oct. 14 – Richmond, VA – Canal Club
Oct. 15 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel
Oct. 17 – Tampa, FL – The Ritz Ybor
Oct. 18 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade
Oct. 20 – Dallas, TX – The Echo Lounge & Music Hall
Oct. 21 – Houston, TX – House of Blues
Oct. 22 – Austin, TX – Empire Control Room & Garage
Oct. 24 – Albuquerque, NM – Sunshine Theater
Oct. 25 – Mesa, AZ – Nile Theater
Oct. 27 – Santa Ana, CA – The Observatory
Oct. 28 – Los Angeles, CA – The Bellwether
Oct. 29 – Berkeley, CA – UC Theater Taube Family Music Hall
Oct. 31 – Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theatre
Nov. 3 – Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
Nov. 4 – Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre
Nov. 6 – Edmonton, AB – Union Hall
Nov. 7 – Calgary, AB – The Palace Theater
Nov. 9 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Depot
Nov. 11 – Denver, CO – Summit
Nov. 12 – Omaha, NE – The Waiting Room Lounge
Nov. 14 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
Nov. 15 – Chicago, IL – The Vic Theatre
Nov. 17 – Columbus, OH – The King of Club
Nov. 18 – Detroit, MI – St. Andrews Hall
Nov. 19 – Toronto, ON – The Danforth Music Hall
Nov. 20 – Montreal, QC – Théâtre Beanfield
Nov. 22 – Albany, NY – Empire Live
Nov. 24 – Cleveland, OH – Agora Theater & Ballroom
Nov. 25 – Pittsburgh, PA – Roxian Theatre
Nov. 26 – Buffalo, NY – Town Ballroom
Nov. 28 – Boston, MA – Royale
Nov. 29 – New York, NY – Webster Hall
Dec. 1 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
BARONESS, founded in 2003, is John Baizley (vocals/guitar),Gina Gleason (guitar),Nick Jost (bass) and Sebastian Thomson (drums). The Philadelphia-meets-Brooklyn foursome has released five full-length albums to date: “Gold & Grey” (2019),“Purple” (2015),“Yellow & Green” (2012),“Blue Record” (2009),and the “Red Album” (2007). The band has won widespread praise throughout their career, continually finding their albums on year-end best of lists, and receiving their first Grammy nomination in 2017 for the song “Shock Me”. On their most recent album “Gold & Grey”, NPR said the collection “feels like a callback to the heyday of the rock album as art object” before confidently declaring the album as “the sound of a band becoming a universe unto itself.” The Savannah-born BARONESS continue to reach new heights, with each release providing a spellbinding new chapter in the storied history of one of modern hard rock’s most critically-acclaimed and beloved bands.
Photo credit: Ebru Yildiz