Baroness - Gold and Grey - Produced by Dave Fridmann

[popshop]

Hello QQ! Some of you may be interested in this from an audio perspective. This album will come out Friday and is currently streaming on NPR.
Baroness have become one of the big metal/hard rock bands, Grammy nominations, managed by Q Prime, etc.
Dave Fridmann (Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips, MGMT, etc) produced their previous album and the new one as well. Both have been criticized by fans for brickwalled mixing and/or mastering, while both have also received very positive reviews for their content.
The new album is very dense, long, and filled with musical and sonic ideas, I suppose going into the prog realm. It would be a perfect candidate for a surround mix - not that one is expected.
When singles were released the past few months, a bunch of comments called for remastering, etc. Now, after hearing the whole album, it seems pretty clear that it is intentional. The whole album is filled with noise, knob-twiddling, panning tricks, vari-speed, and such. The saturation/compression/distortion goes well past distortion/clipping, though whether it is analog or digital or actual clipping is debatable. Interesting as a listen. I know a lot of you really like the surround mix on Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, and I wonder about the division of work between Scheiner and Fridmann.
...

 

[skherbeck]

I loved the Blue album, and even more so the Yellow and Green, but I couldn’t stand the compression on the Purple CD, and Purple on vinyl was no improvement. It’s too bad about the new album being compressed as well... if it’s a DR of 5 or lower again, I just can’t do it. Great band, though, and I agree they would benefit from the surround treatment.

 

[GOS]

I too have a couple of their albums, and I honestly do not listen as it's just harsh and unacceptable.

 

[Marplot]

I love Yellow and Green, hell they have been in rotation almost since release. I forget about Purple and hold hope for the new one. I guess we will find out on Friday.
Now ... Liverpool @ Notre Dame or Baroness in July? Maybe the new album will sway my decision.

 

[Marplot]

foobar2000 1.4.3 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2019-06-14 15:45:35

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzed: Baroness / Gold & Grey
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR4 -0.03 dB -5.35 dB 3:45 01-Front Toward Enemy
DR4 -0.11 dB -5.53 dB 3:51 02-I'm Already Gone
DR4 -0.39 dB -6.32 dB 4:27 03-Seasons
DR9 -4.01 dB -16.62 dB 2:05 04-Sevens
DR4 -0.37 dB -6.57 dB 5:46 05-Tourniquet
DR10 -0.84 dB -16.92 dB 1:40 06-Anchor's Lament
DR3 -0.82 dB -5.63 dB 4:01 07-Throw Me An Anchor
DR7 -0.03 dB -9.97 dB 4:10 08-I'd Do Anything
DR4 -0.70 dB -8.27 dB 1:04 09-Blankets Of Ash
DR5 -2.16 dB -11.94 dB 4:12 10-Emmett - Radiating Light
DR4 -0.53 dB -8.97 dB 5:38 11-Cold-Blooded Angels
DR11 -3.39 dB -16.98 dB 0:42 12-Crooked Mile
DR4 -0.48 dB -5.79 dB 4:24 13-Broken Halo
DR2 -2.30 dB -6.67 dB 2:02 14-Can Oscura
DR4 -0.37 dB -5.61 dB 6:16 15-Borderlines
DR10 -3.13 dB -17.31 dB 2:19 16-Assault On East Falls
DR3 -0.44 dB -5.58 dB 4:14 17-Pale Sun
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of tracks: 17
Official DR value: DR6

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 1035 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

 

[Marplot]

I loved the Blue album, and even more so the Yellow and Green, but I couldn’t stand the compression on the Purple CD, and Purple on vinyl was no improvement. It’s too bad about the new album being compressed as well... if it’s a DR of 5 or lower again, I just can’t do it. Great band, though, and I agree they would benefit from the surround treatment.

woo hoo skherbeck, DR 6 so looks like you get to give it a shot.

 

[The56Kid]

I loved the Blue album, and even more so the Yellow and Green, but I couldn’t stand the compression on the Purple CD, and Purple on vinyl was no improvement. It’s too bad about the new album being compressed as well... if it’s a DR of 5 or lower again, I just can’t do it. Great band, though, and I agree they would benefit from the surround treatment.

I’m with you, Sean. I absolutely loved the Red album and enjoyed Blue thru Yellow/Green, but Purple just didn’t cut it both musically and sonically. I think my Baroness purchasing days are done.

 

[popshop]

I would argue that the overall DR6 is accurate but misleading as it includes several tracks that aren't really songs. About a third of this album is interlude/noise - the tracks with the DR11 and such, while all the actual songs are DR3 and 4. For shame.
Coincidentally, same management team as Metallica, RHCP, Muse... So much compression.
IMO this album could be drastically shortened, made less dense, remixed, and remastered. Other than that, pretty good! Haha. Geez, it just makes me sad.

 

[Marplot]

I agree, I really dig the groove on Broken Halo but Can Oscura is 2 minutes of droning filler I will never get back.

 

[Marplot]

Maybe the songs are Gold and the filler is the Grey.

 

[popshop]

Maybe the songs are Gold and the filler is the Grey.

Haha, it might be true, sort of. There's this pretty informative interview about the artwork, which gets into the title change from Orange to Gold and Grey.
There's another good interview with Sebastian Thomson and Baizley, but I can't find it now.
I totally agree about Can Oscura. About 45 seconds in you realize they don't have a plan. It's weird because Thomson's old band Trans Am sounded a lot like that and made a bunch of great albums where ideas like that turned into full songs. (!)
He's phenomenal but this on this album he mostly sounds like muddled toms and a really loud and distorted hi-hat. ok, I'll stop now. It's beautiful outside!