.::SCRATCHtheSurface Webzine::.: Album of the Month

Baroness last album, the blue one, was as close to perfect as sludgemetal will ever get, so the pressure is on to see if John Baizley and co. can deliver again. Of course they can, not only this highly anticipated new record eclipses the enthralling majesty of “Blue Record”, it’s also heading straight towards the top of the year-end charts. To rise to the challenge, this time they’re doing a few things differently, their music is still richly textured and intricate, blending influences of straight-up sludge, 70’s rock and prog, yet it’s perfectly clear on the very first listening that “Yellow & Green” takes a couple of interesting turns towards a more streamlined and shall I say mainstream rock genre.
The songs have more space to breathe resulting on some of most memorable pieces Baroness have ever created. Pieces such as “Takes My Bones Away”, which is surely one of the catchiest sing-along tune of this summer. Another noticeable change lies in the vocalizations Baroness frontman. Gone are the howls and growls of Baizley, instead the singer now focus on a clean and soulful performance that will surely put all the singing members of Kylesa and Mastodon to shame. I mean, this guy can truly sing.

People can yammer away all they want about the differences between this new effort and previous ones and how Baroness are slowly moving towards a more commercial sound, but who cares? This is still Baroness and they’ve penned one the year’s best albums regardless of what style or genre it fits in. (9/10)

David Alexandre

Band info: www.baronessmusic.com

Label info: www.relapse.com

Evile started out as one of those bands that were caught up in that whole “thrash revival” movement that was going on a few years back. With this, their 3rd effort, I believe that they have finally shed away any forms of “thrash revival” and become a pure metal band.

"Five Serpent’s Teeth" is an absolute ball’s to the wall metal album, which will definitely stand up there with their contemporaries and cement their place into metals history. There is a fair amount of variety in the album with the melancholic song In Memoriam, which is a tribute to their late bassist Mike Alexander, to the complete and utter insanity of Descent into Madness.

James Merrett

Read full review here.