Gold & Grey is the fifth studio album by American heavy metal band Baroness. It was released on June 14, 2019, on the band's own label, Abraxan Hymns.
Background The album is the band's first to feature new guitarist and vocalist Gina Gleason. It was produced by frequent Flaming Lips collaborator Dave Fridmann, who also produced Baroness' previous album.
The band debuted the album's first single, "Borderlines," in Houston at the start of their co-headlining tour with Deafheaven in March 2019. "Seasons" and "Throw Me an Anchor" were released as singles in April and May, respectively. "Front Toward Enemy" debuted on May 3 as part of Adult Swim's Metal Swim 2 compilation. On June 7, Revolver released a live video of Baroness (sans Sebastian Thomson) performing an acoustic rendition of "Cold Blooded Angels" outdoors in the San Francisco Bay Area.
During a European tour in support of Gold & Grey, the band performed songs from the record live in Maida Vale Studios for BBC Radio 1's Rock Show with Daniel P. Carter. This session resulted in an extended play titled Live at Maida Vale – Vol. II, which released the following year.
Album title and artwork In an interview with Revolver, frontman John Baizley explained that the band members were calling the record Orange until the day before it was mastered. He was not fond of the title, and after noticing the phrase "gold and grey" in the album's lyrics, he settled on the Gold & Grey title.
As with the band's previous releases, the cover art was done by Baizley and echoes themes seen on prior recordings that prominently feature scantily clad woman intertwined with scenes inspired by nature. The art work was leaked by music identifying app Shazam which forced Baizley to release it early on the band's Twitter account.
Critical reception
Gold & Grey was widely praised by critics on release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 91, based on 14 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". It is the third highest rated music release of 2019 on the site. Loudwire named it one of the 50 best rock albums of 2019.
Commercial performance Gold & Grey debuted at No. 39 on the Billboard 200 with roughly 13,000 sales in its first week. It peaked at No. 5 on the Top Album Sales chart, No. 2 on the Hard Rock Albums chart, No. 2 on the Vinyl Albums chart, and it topped the Independent Albums chart. The album also debuted atop the UK Rock & Metal Albums Chart, the highest chart position achieved by Baroness to date.
Track listing
Personnel
Baroness John Dyer Baizley – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, glockenspiel, bells, piano, organ, synthesizer, artwork Gina Gleason – lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards, synthesizer Nick Jost – bass, backing vocals, piano, electric piano, synthesizer, strings, bells Sebastian Thomson – drums, guitar
Guests Katie Jones – violin and viola on "Anchor's Lament" Jodi Milbert, Marald van Haasteren, Ben LaFond, Sara Schatz – spoken words on "Blankets of Ash" Isabela Dyer Thompson Baizley – vocals on "Cold-Blooded Angels" LMPD – megaphoning on "Borderlines"
Technical personnel Dave Fridmann – production, engineering, mixing Mike Fridmann – engineering Greg Calbi – mastering
Charts Chart (2019) Peakposition Australian Albums (ARIA) 52 French Albums (SNEP) 177 Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) 57
Accolades Best-of lists Publication Country Accolade Year Rank Decibel US Top 40 Albums of 20192019 30 Loudwire US Top 10 Rock Albums of 20192019 4 Metal Injection US Top 15 Albums of 20192019 2 PopMatters US 70 Best Albums of 20192019 13 Revolver US 25 Best Albums of 20192019 5 Thrillist US Best Albums of 20192019 9 Treble US Top 15 Albums of 20192019 4 Ultimate Guitar US 20 Best Albums of 20192019 20
Heavy Music Awards
| 2020 || Gold & Grey || Best Album Artwork ||
Metal Storm Awards
| rowspan="2" | 2019 || rowspan="2" | Gold & Grey || Best Stoner Metal Album || |- | Best Album Artwork||
References
External links Gold & Grey at Bandcamp (streamed copy where licensed) Gold & Grey at Discogs (list of releases)