Baroness – Yellow & Green

What more can be said about Baroness that hasn’t already been said? For me, they are one of those bands that are a “no doubt about it, must buy!” in a time when the bulk of my non-vinyl music listening comes from iTunes or a service like Pandora, Spotify or Rdio. Their last 2 full lengths (“Red Album” & “Blue Album”) are absolute heavy music classics that everyone who even remotely likes metal or any kind of heavy music should have in their heavy rotation – be it on CD, digital or vinyl. So, with that kind of track record behind them expectations were high for their latest release, a double behemoth titled “Yellow & Green.”

Continuing their evolution into being something more than just another modern sludge or prog metal band, “Yellow & Green” finds the band playing around with a more “dreamy” (for lack of a better way of putting it) sound scape that, other than the tuning and use of heavy riffs, is something closer to a band like Dredg than some of their heavy contemporaries and that is a a surprisingly good thing. While at times the 18 tracks that comprise this album seem to all be one continuous jam it still manages to hold your attention.

As for the vinyl release  itself, there were a few different variations that the always reliable Relapse Records put out for the fans and the collectors alike.  There’s the absolutely insane Deluxe Hardbound Book version that saw a total of 3000 pressed with 500 Yellow/Green split, 500 on Dark Green, 500 on Orange Cream and 1500 on Opaque Yellow. There’s also the standard double lp gate fold release with 9100 total pressed; the standard 100 on clear that Relapse does for every release (and rarely, if ever, release to the public), 1000 on 180 Gram black, 1000 on Yellow (A & B sides) and Green (C & D sides) and 7000 on standard black. (All pressing info via Discogs)

As is typically the case with Relapse Records vinyl releases this is a fantastically put together release with awesome artwork (done, as usual, by Baroness’s own John Baizley) and the always greatly appreciated gate fold packaging. Combine all that with the fact that Relapse keeps the price of the release to nothing one would call absurdly high it’s absolutely a release you need to look into. It’s still available on the standard black pressing through the Relapse web store so slide over and pick it up today.

Thou

This is the new record from Thou. It’s called The Archer & The Owle and it is bad ass.

I had never heard Thou even though I always saw them on the Robotic Empire webstore. One day I was at some department store and dude I know who is into all kinds of music suggested them. This dude knows his shit so I checked them out. Totally vicious sludge/doom metal but with this great spacey side too.  I really got hooked so I was pumped to see this record get put up for pre-order.

I will first start by saying that this is the hardest thing I have ever photographed in my life. I wanted to show the spot-gloss of birds all over the cover but the only way I could do it was by putting a shit ton of light on it. One thing was that the back didn’t have too much going on, so the camera was trying to focus on the spot-gloss and wouldn’t focus properly. Total bitch. In the end I just did what I could. I got a decent amount of the birds to show up but I think I could have worked at it and maybe got them all to show up without all the glare.

It’s funny listening to Thou at times cause you get into this Pelican like groove where it’s all blissful and then BOOM, Satan on vocals. The Nirvana cover really kind of freaked me out too. Fantastic band and another home run for Robotic Empire.

The album is stunning. One of the best looking jackets I’ve seen. Great heavy vinyl and fantastic art. 500 on opaque gray (mailorder/band only) and 1500 on translucent clear.

Trap Them

We covered the news that Deathwish had put up this record last Friday. Today, the copy I ordered showed up. And it looks awesome.

One thing I really like about this release is the way they went with a basic black and white color scheme for the artwork. I know the original release artwork was mostly b&w but it did have some color. It didn’t look bad at all, but for me this black and white scheme just works better for some reason.

Inside that sleeve we find the record itself (on a pretty sturdy clear vinyl) and a simple black and white inner page for liner notes, etc. I continue to be a big fan of these kind of simple and to the point packages.

Sorry the images of the vinyl itself are a little grainy. I shot them in an area with absolutely NO natural light so they didn’t turn out as well as I hoped. But you get the idea I think. Anyway, this is an awesome package from an excellent band and tremendous label. If you like heavy music and vinyl you need to make this a part of your collection ASAP.