About Baroness
Baroness is an American heavy metal band from Savannah, Georgia that has been active since 2003. Its early members grew up together in Lexington, Virginia. The band has undergone numerous lineup changes, with frontman John Baizley serving as the sole constant throughout. Baizley creates the artwork for all of the group's albums and has done artwork for other bands.
Baroness formed in the summer of 2003 in Savannah, Georgia. The original lineup consisted of guitarist and vocalist John Baizley, guitarist Tim Loose, bassist Summer Welch, and drummer Allen Blickle. Previously, John, Summer, Allen, and future-member Pete Adams had played together in a punk rock band called Johnny Welfare and the Paychecks. Much of the early Baroness material was written by John and Pete at a music store and later a small apartment in Savannah. "Tower Falls" was the first Baroness song written. Baroness' demo was recorded in September 2003 by Steve West of Marble Valley and self-released by the band that same year. They began touring in the fall and gained the attention of independent record label Hyperrealist Records.
The group's debut extended play was recorded in November at The Jam Room Studio in Columbia, South Carolina with Phillip Cope of Kylesa, who produced Baroness' early recording sessions. The EP, titled First, was released by Hyperrealist on August 3, 2004. The band recorded a follow-up EP, Second, which was released by Hyperrealist on September 5, 2005. That same year, Tim Loose was replaced on guitar by Brian Blickle . After touring Europe with the new lineup, Baroness reunited with Tim in the studio to record two final songs that would appear on a split album with fellow Savannah-based band Unpersons. The album, A Grey Sigh in a Flower Husk, was released by At a Loss Recordings on June 26, 2007.
Baroness started recording their first studio album at The Jam Room with Phillip Cope in March 2007. It was announced shortly after that the group had signed with Relapse Records. The band's first release on the label was a split 7" record with High on Fire and Coliseum, to which Baroness contributed the song "O'Appalachia" from their upcoming album. Their debut full-length, Red Album, was released by Relapse on September 4, 2007. Hyperrealist also released a limited one-off pressing of the record on dark red vinyl with etched borders, of which there are 1000 copies. Red Album was met with positive reception, with Heavy metal magazine Revolver naming it the top album of the year.
On December 1, 2007, Baroness performed at New York City's Bowery Ballroom. The band's first music video debuted on December 6 on Headbangers Ball. Throughout the late 2000s, Baroness toured and shared the stage with many bands, including Converge, The Red Chord, High on Fire, Opeth, Coheed and Cambria, Coliseum, Mastodon, Minsk and Clutch. On September 20, 2008, the band announced that Brian Blickle had been replaced with guitarist and vocalist Pete Adams, who by that point was a member of Valkyrie. On October 5, 2008, Hyperrealist released First & Second, a compilation album of remixed and remastered versions of the songs from the first two Baroness EPs.
On April 23, 2009, Baroness performed at the Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Netherlands. In May, they entered The Track Studio in Plano, Texas, to record their second full-length album. Produced by John Congleton, Blue Record was released via Relapse on October 13, 2009. Material from their Roadburn performance was included as a bonus disc on the deluxe edition of the album, while the Japanese release features a cover version of the Descendents song "Bikeage". Blue Record debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and reached 117 on the Billboard 200. It was named Decibel Magazine's top record of the year, and would later be named the 20th "Greatest Metal Album in History" by LA Weekly. Roughly six months after Blue Record was released, Baroness signed an agreement to be represented by Q Prime Management.
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