Baroness on Crash Recovery, James Hetfield Call, Dave Fridmann–Produced LP
“We’re always trying to achieve some new goal convincingly,” says Baroness frontman and guitarist John Baizley. “Once we’ve done that, once we’ve passed the mile marker that we have never reached before, we set the bar a little further down the road and see if we can outdo that.”
With all due respect to Baizley and his cohorts, it might be tough to outdo Purple, their fourth and latest studio album, out December 18th — not just because it’s a ferociously cathartic and brilliantly crafted blast of progressive metal, but because of the considerable obstacles that Baroness had to overcome on the way to its creation.
On August 15th, 2012, less than a month after the release of their third album, Yellow & Green, the band’s tour bus fell 30 feet from a viaduct near Bath, England. Baizley’s left arm was crushed so badly in the accident that his doctors seriously considered amputating it; while they were thankfully able to save the limb, it took countless grueling hours of physical therapy and practice for Baizley to fully regain his playing ability. In the meantime, the respective back injuries suffered by bassist Matt Maggioni and drummer Allen Blickle caused them to resign from the band, forcing Baizley and guitarist Pete Adams to find a new rhythm section.
“We’d been through lineup changes before,” says Baizley. “It can be seamless, it can be difficult, but there’s nothing predictable about it. With this one, when we really needed things to be easy, they were!” Through the recommendations of friends, they found able replacements in the form of ex–Trans Am drummer Sebastian Thomson and bassist-keyboardist Nick Jost, both of whom contribute mightily to Purple‘s muscular and melodic punch.
Also adding to the album’s rich sonic vistas is producer Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Sleater-Kinney, MGMT), who recorded the album at his Tarbox Road Studios in Cassadaga, New York. Fridmann’s Technicolor touch — and the band’s renewed fire and energy — can be heard on the first two tracks officially released from Purple, the epic “Chlorine & Wine” and the swaggering “Shock Me.” Baizley recently spoke with Rolling Stone about these tracks, working with Fridmann, going down the creative rabbit hole and getting a call from Metallica’s James Hetfield while he was still recovering from surgery.
At what point after the bus accident did you realize that you would, in fact, be able to play guitar again?
Right after I woke up from surgery, which would have been four days after the accident. They spent two or three days contending with the breaking of my arm, which seemed to require amputation — which I and many of my friends and family members were fighting very hard against. I went in for what was thought to be a two- or three-hour surgery, and ended up coming out of surgery 10 hours later; it was more severe, complicated and difficult than even they assumed. However, with this incredibly invasive surgery, they were able to save the vast majority of my arm. You know, it’s far from perfect, but the fingers work; they do what they need to do, and all the mechanisms that I use to play guitar are as intact as I could hope for.