Baroness Wants to Uplift Local Metal, Hardcore Bands on Tour

Throughout the past twenty years, the ephemeral art of Baroness became much more than what is forever captured on its collection of eight full-length albums. Full of everything from sludge to prog rock, the Philadelphia-based group’s often color-coded records exist more like immersive pieces now, conjured from a connection that's second nature to the four musicians, explains founding vocalist and guitarist, John Baizley, while discussing the latest release, STONE.

The band has a history of lineup changes, which is "not a small thing for us," Baizley says. "What we were able to do that’s been difficult on past records, just practically speaking, is we’re able to build on an internal chemistry and allow our music to be written a little bit more from the standpoint of intuition and reactivity and improvisation than on former records. It wasn’t as precisely composed and organized, because it didn’t need to be, because our band has a live chemistry, and we have a way of playing.”

Baizley, who is also a prolific visual artist and creates Baroness's eclectic album art full of mercurial maidens and woodland whimsy, discusses his relationship with bandmates Gina Gleason (guitar), Nick Jost (bass) and Sebastian Thomson (drums) with reverence, but admits it’s hard to articulate exactly what takes place when they all get into a room together. “I know this sounds very much like a musician answer, but we let the music write itself from these kernels of these small melodies or a lyric or groove idea,” he says.

“We let the songs compose themselves, because we were in the shape to do that, and we have stability in our lineup that allows our chemistry to blossom as we’re writing, and in many cases, as we’re recording. So there’s many cases of improvisation on the record that we just left as is and didn’t really sweat it,” Baizley continues. “But the record is built on chemistry. The record is built on musical trust that we’ve accumulated and earned over hundreds, nay thousands, of shows on stage and rehearsals.”

STONE is the first Baroness record in more than a decade to use the same cast as its preceding release, 2019’s Gold & Grey, and the result showcases a band solidifying and building upon its eclectic sound. New songs “Last Word” and “Bloom” live on opposite ends of the aural spectrum, but neither is necessarily an outlier when plugged into the overall composition of the record. STONE is a bit more magical and mysterious than anything Baroness has done before, and Baizley knows it — he can even feel it.

“We stopped talking about the form and the theory of music when we’re writing, because it’s just a language musicians use to communicate. But we achieved a type of communication that was nonverbal during many aspects of writing, composing, recording and producing this record that became quintessential parts of the idea of this record and, by extension, a quintessential foundational structure for the band itself,” he shares.

There is a “strange alchemy” that defines Baroness, Baizley says, and its music may escape description in writing and words, but seeing the band live is a revelation; it's also the best example of this imperfect science. Lucky for Denver, Baroness is playing Summit Music Hall on Saturday, November 11. Local groups Wayfarer and Destiny Bond are also on the bill.

Baizley makes sure to mention that he’s been a fan of hometown hardcore group Destiny Bond for a while now, and more recently picked up on what Wayfarer is doing with its brand of Old West black metal. The two Denver bands will join Baroness for three dates, including Salt Lake City and Omaha.

Baroness will play with nineteen different opening acts during its current tour. The idea of highlighting popular regional groups is something Baizley has always wanted to do, and it only adds to the uniqueness of each show. “I’ve had this idea for years," he says, "where we highlight the regional excitement that’s happening and play to that."

While the Baroness set list will include a heavy dose of STONE, the band also makes it a point to play at least one song from each of its albums and views the audience as “a critical fifth member,” according to Baizley. So bringing songs, especially new ones, to a live setting is an extension and critical part of the Baroness process.

“I don’t think about music as a nuts-and-bolts thing,” Baizley explains. “It’s like a painting. At the granular level, it’s a couple thousand strokes of paint. The further you move away from it, the more those details become one, new recognizable detail, and the further back you move, your perspective changes and the energy and the flow of the image changes; the narrative structure changes.

“I think that’s why we try to change our set list up every night, just so we’re not telling the same story on stage day in and day out,” he concludes. “That to me has always sounded like a Sisyphean task, repeating the same routine every night.”

Baroness, 6 p.m. Saturday, November 11, Summit Music Hall, 1902 Blake Street. Tickets are $29-$45.