''Blue Record'' is the second studio album by American heavy metal band

Baroness Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knight ...

. It was released in 2009 by

Relapse Records Relapse Records is an American independent record label based in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Matthew F. Jacobson in 1990. The label features many grindcore, death metal, metalcore and sludge metal artists. History The ...

Background

Baroness began writing ''Blue Record'' in 2007. The album was recorded in May and June of 2009 at The Track Studio in

Plano, Texas Plano ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "flat surface" /'plano/) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, where it is the largest city in Collin County, Texas, Collin County. A small portion of Plano is located in Denton County, Texas, Denton Count ...

, and Elmwood Studio in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

. It is the first Baroness album to feature guitarist Pete Adams and the first to be produced by

John Congleton John Congleton is a grammy winning American record producer, engineer, mixer, writer and musician. In addition to his production work, Congleton has fronted the alternative rock band The Paper Chase, and writes music for a newer project entitl ...

. It is the band's final studio recording to feature bassist Summer Welch before his departure in 2011.

Release

''Blue Record'' was released on October 13, 2009 by

. It is available on CD, on

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

, and as a

music download A music download is the digital transfer of music via the Internet into a device capable of decoding and playing it, such as a personal computer, portable media player, MP3 player or smartphone. This term encompasses both legal downloads ...

. The Japanese edition features a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of the

Descendents The Descendents are an American punk rock band formed in Manhattan Beach, California, in 1977, by guitarist Frank Navetta, bassist Tony Lombardo and drummer Bill Stevenson (musician), Bill Stevenson as a power pop/surf music, surf punk band. I ...

song "Bikeage", which was recorded during same studio sessions as the album. A deluxe edition was also released, and it includes a bonus disc with live audio from Baroness' performance at the 2009

Roadburn Festival The Roadburn Festival is an annual music festival held each April in Tilburg, Netherlands. It was founded by Walter Hoeijmakers and Jurgen van den Brand in 1999, who ran a stoner rock blog of the same name. The festival has been held at Tilburg ...

. On November 7, 2009, Baroness premiered a music video for the song "A Horse Called Golgotha". On August 31, 2010, Relapse released "A Horse Called Golgotha" as a 7" single. The single includes the Japanese bonus track "Bikeage" as a

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

. The song "Swollen and Halo" was included as part of the soundtrack to the 2010 video game MLB 10: The Show.

Reception

''Blue Record'' was very well received by music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

(a review aggregator site which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 from music critics), based on 8 critics, the album received a score of 87/100, which indicates "universal acclaim." Phil Freeman of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

gave the album a perfect five-star rating, saying, "Baroness has made a subtle but unmistakable evolutionary leap on 'Blue Record'' their second full-length and a clear companion piece to 2007's ''Red Album''." He called ''Blue Record'' "a ferocious album that's not afraid to be genuinely beautiful." In a review for ''

Rock Sound ''Rock Sound'' is a British magazine that covers rock music. The magazine aims at being more " underground" and less commercial, while also giving coverage to better-known acts. It generally focuses on pop punk, post-hardcore, metalcore, punk, ...

'', Kevin Stuart-Panko wrote that " aroness'range of dynamics has grown immensely," and "everything about ‘Blue Album’ sound larger-than-life." He rated the album 9/10. In Grayson Haver Currin's review for ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'', he gave the album an 8.5/10 rating, and stated, "Every song bleeds into the other, and its flow is impeccable... ''Blue Record'' never feels overthought or overworked." He concluded by saying, "Complex enough to reward repetitive listening and compact enough to encourage it, ''Blue Record'' is one of the year's most generous hours." Cory S. of ''Scene Point Blank'' gave the album a rating of 8.4/10, calling it "more experimental, creative, and outgoing" than ''Red Album''. He said that "Baroness have again created something great and unique with ''Blue Record'' and it's one of the strongest releases to come out of this year."

Accolades

Decibel The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a Power, root-power, and field quantities, power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whos ...

'' magazine named ''Blue Record'' the top album of 2009. It was named "Best Sludge / Stoner Metal Album" at the 2009 ''Metal Storm'' Awards. In 2013, ''Blue Record'' was named the 20th Greatest Metal Album in History by ''

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. The paper covers music, arts, film, theater, culture, and other local news in the Los Angeles area. ''LA Weekly'' was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin (among others), ...

''.

Commercial performance

''Blue Record'' was Baroness' first release to appear on music charts. The album debuted at number 117 on the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Sometimes, a rec ...

, selling 4,700 copies in its first week, which was the most of any metal release. It spent twelve weeks on the ''Billboard'' Heatseekers chart, where it debuted in the top position. It also appeared on ''Billboard''

Tastemaker Albums The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...

Independent Albums The Independent Albums chart (previously titled Top Independent Albums) ranks the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays (EPs) in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by '' Billboard'' mag ...

, and

Top Hard Rock Albums The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...

charts.

Track listing

Note: "The Birthing" (Live) includes a rendition of the

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...

song " Machine Gun"

Personnel

;Baroness *

John Dyer Baizley John Dyer Baizley (born October 10, 1977) is an American musician and painter most notable for being the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of heavy metal band Baroness, which formed in 2003 in Savannah, Georgia. He has been the sole constant mem ...

– lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, artwork * Pete Adams – lead guitar, backing vocals * Summer Welch – bass * Allen Blickle – drums ;Technical personnel *

– production, engineering, mixing * Baroness – production * Alan Douches – mastering

Charts

References

External links

''Blue Record (Deluxe Version)''
at

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

(streamed copy where licensed)
''Blue Record''
at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

(list of releases) {{Authority control 2009 albums Baroness (band) albums Relapse Records albums Albums produced by John Congleton Albums with cover art by John Dyer Baizley