Gold & Grey
| Baroness
Gold & Grey
Gold & Grey is the fifth studio album by American heavy metal band Baroness, released on June 14, 2019, on the band's own label, Abraxan Hymns. As with previous releases by the band, the album's artwork was designed by front-man and lead singer John Dyer Baizley. The album is the band's first to feature new guitarist Gina Gleason and was mastered by frequent Flaming Lips collaborator Dave Fridmann who also produced Baroness' previous album. The first single from the album, "Borderlines", was released in March 2019. - Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Post-rock, space rock, prog rock, psychedelic rock, grungy Alice in Chains-eyeing hard rock—it’s all here, and since it’s Baroness, it works.
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NPR
Baroness has redigested every sound of the band's career thus far and synthesized it into something greater. Gold & Grey is the sound of a band becoming a universe unto itself.
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Stereogum
Gold & Grey is the best thing Baroness have ever done.
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Metal Injection
Among the rich palette of colors and sounds Baroness has crafted, Gold & Grey is the brightest and most striking of them all.
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NME
The metal band have battled through adversity (and near-death) to make a life-affirming record.
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Sonic Perspectives
Gold & Grey is an appropriate end for the band’s color-named string of albums, and a triumphant return.
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Invisible Oranges
Cherish it. Music this good doesn’t come around every day.
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Pop Matters
Just about every listener—no matter their history or prior opinions—will deem Gold & Grey Baroness' masterpiece.
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Metal Sucks
Spontaneously melancholy and invigorating, Gold & Grey perfectly encapsulates how Baroness excel at reaching shining peaks and descending into gloomy valleys.
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The Young Folks
Gold & Grey has something for everyone, beautifully capturing all of the varied reasons to admire Baroness.
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The Line of Best Fit
The best heavy metal bands have always been those that push hardest against the confines of the genre, break on through to the other side, and lay the foundations for other bands to build skyward.
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Consequence of Sound
The band’s fifth studio LP makes for a culmination of all their passion and discipline.
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Treble Zine
They’re still going, still challenging themselves, still moving the goalposts that much farther out.
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The 405
On their fifth full-length, Gold & Grey, Baroness explore the darkness that pervades a life lived in the shadow of trauma.
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Heavy Blog is Heavy
There’s a flow to the record that allows each song to flow into the next and creates an experience more than just a collection of songs. It may go down as the best record Baroness has made and truly one of the highlights of 2019.
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Erie Reader
The record is filled with epic moments, emotional passages, with complicated, technical leads around every corner, fit for fans of any genre.
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Chorus
It’s fitting that a masterpiece like Gold & Grey will finish the color spectrum a decade after Blue marked their arrival. Highly recommended.
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Exclaim
Baroness have outdone themselves with Gold & Grey. Armed with a fresh sound and well-honed talent, they are finally ready to be recognized as one of the most important bands in modern rock music.
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Band Wagon
Every Baroness fan may have their varied opinions on what the best record may be, but there’s no denying that Gold & Grey is the storybook ending to the band’s beloved chromatic-themed series.
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All Music
Here, thanks to maturity, Fridmann's mix, and uncanny sequencing, every song fits seamlessly inside each proceeding one, delivering a mercurial yet satisfying whole that makes Gold & Grey the band's finest outing to date, if not their masterpiece.
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Forbes
Baroness have delivered their most diverse record to date, and they continue to show their masterful musicianship after each release.
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Brooklyn Vegan
Gold & Grey doesn’t feel split into two distinct parts; it’s one, lengthy album where anything goes from start to finish.
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Inquirer
It’s easily their softest album, filled with acoustic and instrumental passages between trademark high-wire set pieces for Baizley and new lead guitarist Gina Gleason.
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Metal Nation
There’s not really anything left for me to say here other than to declare that it is firmly my opinion that Gold & Grey is a stunning work of art and the crown jewel in the Baroness catalogue to this point.
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Kill Your Stereo
While ‘Gold & Grey’ is being hailed elsewhere as the group’s masterpiece, I feel that that’s perhaps a little too strong a statement. The record’s overall composition feels directionless at times, lacking the refined purpose of ‘Blue Record’ or ‘Purple’, and the track sequencing itself feels bloated with distracting filler. However, when the band fires on all creative cylinders, they manage to unfurl a collection of hook-laden, rock’n’roll bangers strong enough to rival the very best in their back catalogue.
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The Void Report
The album has plenty of compelling and captivating material to digest. With each spin of Gold & Grey, you will uncover another layer of beautiful melodies
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Riff Magazine
With an expanded sonic reserve, standard-setting arrangements and memorable motifs, Gold & Grey is a must for fans of powerful, nuanced, proficient rock.
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Everything is Noise
Whether or not this moment in the history of Baroness is fleeting or the new normal, it’s a moment that should be recognized as their greatest.
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Pure Grain Audio
Gold & Grey is a staggering effort by a band that refuses to give up and seeks to both progress and succeed, artists that have found their niche and won’t stop until they have eked out every last drop of music that they can produce together.
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Heavy Music Headquarters
Overproduced and saturated with effects, then mastered and brickwalled to within an inch of its life, Gold & Grey is similar to Purple in that it sounds horrible.
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Ultimate Guitar
Despite some imperfections, the album is a strongly endearing listen throughout, and it deserves the critical praise it is likely to achieve.
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Blogcritics
One could say that Blue Record was the peak of Baroness’s metal prowess, but Gold & Grey is their crowning achievement.
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Wall of Sound
Overall, the greatness of the songs Gold & Grey cannot be overstated. Baroness have crafted the most enjoyable songs of their entire discography; hitting the sludgy, gritty highlights, and the acoustic, emotional ones too.
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The Soundboard
Gold & Grey feels like a fitting next step for a band constantly evolving and challenging themselves, and when there are moments where this could easily be their most challenging release to date, it all comes together regardless of anything else.
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Get Rocked
Overall, Gold & Grey is an album that proves Baroness have not only thought outside the box, but proven that no defined box will ever fit Baroness.
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Astral Noize
This is hard rock as art; beautiful, powerful and moving.
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Vinyl Chapters
Baroness return with an ambitious and expansive record, and the results are stunning.
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Dead Press
Baroness have truly come into their own, and ‘Gold & Grey’ deserves to be remembered as a record that truly transcends the boundaries of the genre that it came from. With some justice, Baroness‘ rise should only continue further.
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Ghost Cult Magazine
Without trying to top the previous album, they have yet again found new ways to express their art. Excuse me while I go to the dollar store for a new box of tissues, or ten.
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Media Mikes
Despite “Gold & Grey” having a few too many slow moments for my liking the songs that weren’t balls to the wall rockers were still enjoyable making this an album I would certainly recommend checking out.
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Alt Dialogue
Excellent stuff. It’s an appropriate end to the colour albums and paves the way forward for the band.
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Bloody Good Music
It's a great record that I can't listen to. Maybe my ears are too sensitive. Maybe you won't notice the problems I do. If so, good for you. You get to enjoy some good music. I'm not going to lie and say I'll be among you.
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The Weekender
Baroness’ ‘Gold & Grey’ nearly perfect, but undone by messy mixing.
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Unsung Melody
Gold & Grey is but a tip of the iceberg with what the new incarnation of Baroness can do. This excellent album is an explicit reminder of the sheer amount of talent and creativity that inhabit each member. The emotion that is shared throughout each note and beat is inherently, and intentionally, visceral and vibrant.
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Music mxdwn
Overall, the album is masterfully constructed and Baroness continues to produce albums that should be listened to.
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The Weekly Spoon
Along with the elegance and vulnerability that Baroness offers in their lyrics make them disguising yet relatable.
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Smells Like Infinite Sadness
Southern act sheds its metal skin in exchange of emotive anthems and experimental textures.
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GBHBL
Is it as good as some of their previous work? Honestly, no. It has great tracks but is a little too confused and times and has far too many interludes that offer very little but a distraction from what you actually want to hear.
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Inside the Setlist
Gold & Grey is a must listen for Progressive Rock fans!
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Knac
Unpolished is one thing, but Gold & Grey seems somehow unfinished – as if someone got handed the rough mixes and never completed the job.
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Punktastic
‘Gold & Grey’ represents progression, healing, perseverance and ultimately, triumph. It’s the sixth and final piece in their chromatically-themed records, and cements their legacy as one of the finest metal bands of our time.
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Beat
‘Gold & Grey’, is their most daring venture yet.
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Earbuddy
Baroness have made better albums in my opinion, so don’t fully buy the masterpiece hype. But you better believe all the indie blogs will be talking about them again whenever they chase the rainbow once again.
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Nevermore Horror
The album, however, on paper, checks all the boxes of a great work of art, but I think there is something fundamentally amiss.
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Metal Insider
‘Gold & Grey’ by Baroness is their strongest and most complete record to date.
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