Baroness are returning to Australia – for the first time since 2016 – to perform at Download Festival as well as their own sideshows.
Since they were last here, the band have released their fifth album ‘Gold & Grey’, building and expanding their trademark prog-metal sound. This was the second time bassist Nick Jost went into the studio with the band, having joined the group in 2013 after replacing Matt Maggioni and working on their 2015 album 'Purple'.
“‘Purple’ was Seb [drummer] and I trying to fit into the band that we were new to; now we feel like we are more comfortable in it,” Nick explains. “I think the biggest difference was that we were so prepared for ‘Purple’ when we went into the studio. With ‘Gold & Grey’, the second session we went in we were like ‘well, we have these five riffs we all like, let’s go to the studio and see what happens!’.
"I’m thankful we were settled in because that process definitely took a lot of trust for the four of us; to make up half a record in two weeks, which is what we ended up having to do; which was the most insane fourteen, sixteen hours a day of musical arguments essentially.
"That was a test for us and we came out still liking each other and dealing with our opinions really, really well. It was pretty intense, but it was good. I think having done a record was definitely very important to be able to do that kind of process the second time around.”
'Gold & Grey' sees Baroness hark back to an acoustic sound that wasn’t on ‘Purple’, but had been explored in previous albums. With the introduction of new guitarist Gina Gleason in 2017, Nick says Baroness was “in the right place and had the right guitar player to do it”.
With a day's notice and minimal preparation, Baroness had to bring their acoustic sound to a live stage in 2019 at French metal festival Hellfest after drummer Sebastian Thomson had to unexpectedly return home. “The preparation for that was, we woke up that morning and sat in the back lounge of the bus and rattled off the songs to where we thought we might be able to do it.
“I had definitely never played any of those songs on keys before, but I knew them so we were just like ‘well, let’s see how this goes [in front of] four or five thousand people, at one of the biggest metal festivals on earth. Yeah, let’s do that.’
“That moment was magical – sorry Seb – but it was pretty special to have that many people, a full house crowd surfing, everybody singing along and hands in the air for that whole set. John [Baizley] and Gina pulled it off great having never really done that stuff before. That led to this go around; John and Gina have been working on acoustic performances of the songs and we’ve been doing more of that at record stores along the way. We think that day was definitely inspired.”
As well as performing at Download Festival, Baroness will be supporting Deftones at two sideshows in Brisbane and Adelaide; a dream line-up and a perfect pairing for metal fans.
“I think it’s a ridiculously cool bill. When we’ve played with them a couple of times since I’ve been in the band, it works really well, it’s a really interesting night of music. For me, obviously a Deftones fan, so it’s like. . . that stuff is so sick to watch. I’m stoked that we’re able to do that and I think those nights are going to be ridiculous.”
