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BARONESS  First & Second  CD   (Hyperrealist Records)   14.98
First & Second IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR ORDER

Baroness' first two CD releases have been out of print for awhile, but now that the band has been touring all over the planet in support of their Red Album on Relapse, Hyperrealist has reissued both of those early EPs as a single deluxe disc. Each EP has been remixed and remastered, and this new disc combines all of John Baizley's awesome artwork into a single package, a full color digipack with additional artwork, foil stamped lettering on the cover, and packaged inside of an illustrated o-card. It looks great.

Here's my original blurb for First: Monstrously epic sounding, thunderous sludge riffs and skillful dual-guitar harmonies come together with ripping d-beat hardcore aggression. Sort of like His Hero Is Gone busting out Fucking Champs-style harmonies? Although these songs all sound pretty apocalyptic, there is a great sense of melody throughout this CD - this stuff is really quite pretty and catchy at times."Tower Falls" has got some awesome anthemic breakdowns and harmonies."Coeur" is the shortest track at just over three minutes, yet still packs in killer memorable riffs and harmonies and odd (but awesome) riffs and chord phrasings. The final track,"Rise", is a monster, starting off with atmospheric finger tapping that stretches for several minutes before turning into a bulldozing sludge dirge . Awesome.

On on Second: The second EP from BARONESS delivers more of their righteous and majestic post-crust-metal that we loved so much from their First CD, with technical instrumentals, lengthy psychedelia, and moody RODAN / JUNE OF 44 post-rock interjected with awesome IRON MAIDEN / F**KING CHAMPS level guitar harmonies and crushing tech/sludge/crustcore. Super powerful, and Second also does a good job of capturing the band�s live energy. Killer stuff, BARONESS just keeps getting better and better with each release. And as with their first release, this disc has three songs, clocking in at around 21 minutes. Highly recommended to fans of Isis and Pelican, Disrupt and Neurosis, psychedelic crustcore, punishingly heavy metallic post-rock, stretched-out tarpit sludge, odd meters and complex arrangements and triumphant metal hooks!!

Highly recommended.