Baroness Bus Crash: John Dyer Baizley Speaks

Look closely…

This just came via email and is one of the most moving things I have ever read:

On August 15^th, just before 11 am, Baroness and our crew were involved in a very bad crash while on tour. The brakes in our bus failed completely, on a notoriously dangerous, incredibly steep (12% grade) hill in Monkton Combe, UK, on our way from a show Bristol to another show in Southampton. Our bus went entirely out of control, and we had no choice other than hitting a perpendicular guardrail going about 50 mph at the bottom of the hill. The guard rail and the 20 or 30 trees we ploughed through snapped like matchsticks as we went fully airborne and fell down more than 30 feet off of a viaduct to the ground below. Half of the band/crew were asleep while we lost our brakes, and a few of us were awake and sitting in the rear lounge. I was up front with our driver, and I bore witness to the entire thing. Once our brakes failed, the bus could do little more than gain momentum and plummet down the hill. There was nothing anyone on the bus could have done during our descent to avoid the crash, and no one, the local residents, the police or any of us can believe we survived the impact.

Inter Arma: Destroyer EP

Are these your balls sir?

Inter Arma are the best band you’ve never heard. Debut Sundown snuck up on me and wrapped a tire iron around my head to snaffle third spot in my 2010 end of year list with its amalgam of black metal, sludge and NWOBHM.

Typically when I fall in love a record, any follow-up will struggle fill its shoes.

On their Relapse Records debut EP, Inter Arma do more than buck that trend, they torpedo that motherfucker out of the water.

You Need to Hear: Samothrace

Pop-punk this ain’t kids

Samothrace may have just released their sophomore record Reverence to Stone. Yet this dispatch from Monkey Towers, while Samothracian in subject, will barely mention that.

Instead, my thoughts about that record’s 2008 predecessor, Life’s Trade – hands down one of the best records I have heard this year – have finally coagulated.

So, in the absence of my having got my arse in gear to properly digest the new one, you can read Sawtooth Wave‘s take on it, if that’s what you are after.

Otherwise, let’s see if we can get a handle on an album that takes 47 minutes to unravel  four songs.

Baroness Live in London 2012: Heavy Ecstasy

Now it’s time for medication, stallions on the eiderdown

Some of us love metal for the darkness and mystery: cloaks, pseudonyms, smoke and ritualistic paraphernalia.

Baroness offered none of that. Just four guys and their instruments squeezed together on a low stage in a tiny upstairs room at a London bar that was packed out with adoring fans.

This was no-frills rock and roll. Band and audience giving it their all.

New Baroness Album Stream

Naked ladies, swans about to get it, death and decay. Nothing to see here, move along now.

Fucking hell. The hairs on my neck are standing on end. I am listening to the opening bars of Baroness Yellow & Green on NPR. I can’t believe it, Christmas has come early!

Check out the full album stream here or better yet here.

Right can’t stop, have a double-album of pure awesome to listen to for the first time!

Update: I love Baroness but two thirds through the Yellow side I am not being immediately blown away. I liked the advance singles but I’m a bit dubious. Will persevere.

Update #2: Green seems the stronger of the two sides (I’m a third in) but I’m still on the fence about whether I like this. I hope we get plenty of old stuff at Thursday’s gig!

Update #3: I really miss the roar and riff. Stop singing man and bellow! After a full (single) listen, I have very mixed feelings. Let’s hope it’s a grower.