After some gentle teasing via social media, Baroness have revealed the cover art and title of their highly anticipated fifth album, Gold & Grey. The Savannah quartet recently debuted a song off the record live at the kickoff show of its current co-headlining tour with Deafheaven, but a release date for the LP — the follow-up to 2015's Grammy-nominated Purple — has yet to be announced. The gorgeous and insanely detailed cover painting was created by frontman John Dyer Baizley, a noted visual artist responsible for the cover art of the band's previous releases, as well as for pieces for Metallica, Converge, Pig Destroyer and more.
"This is just the first piece of a much larger puzzle," Baizley wrote of the painting, revealed via Instagram. "Like the forthcoming album itself, it is the result of an intense, tireless, and psychotically convoluted creative process. Both artistically and musically, Baroness have always taken a no compromise approach towards our releases, and I can't express strongly enough how excited we are to be so close to the verge of our newest release. This painting was born from a deeply personal reflection on the past 12 years of this band's history, and will stand as the 6th and final piece in our chromatically-themed records. It has been an absolutely wild ride, a truth much stranger than fiction, with nearly as many low points as there have been highs, but throughout all, this band has offered me an inspired place to express myself and find some level of comfort through our visual and sonic output. I hope you all enjoy this album cover (sorry it's not called Orange). Don't look too closely, you might just see all the hidden elements." See the artwork and the full post below.
Below, go inside the mind of Baroness main man John Dyer Baizley who opens up for our "Rise Above" series about how art has helped him overcome tragedy and anxiety:
