Hear Baroness’ Aggressive, Dark New Song ‘Shock Me’
Georgia alt-metal band Baroness have previewed another intoxicatingly tough new single from their forthcoming album Purple. The dark “Shock Me” follows up the album’s lead single, “Chlorine and Whine.”
The new track moves more swiftly and aggressively than the sprawling “Chlorine and Whine.” “Good fortune never was shining on me the way it shone on you,” frontman John Baizley sings before howling out the anthemic chorus.
Purple will be released on December 18th via the band’s new label, Abraxan Hymns. It’s the Savannah, Georgia band’s first since 2012’s Yellow and Green and with new bassist/keyboardist Nick Jost and drummer Sebastien Thomson. They replaced Matt Maggioni and Allen Blickle, respectively, who left Baroness after being seriously injured in a bus accident. Both Blickle and Maggioni were left with fractured vertebrae after their tour bus fell 30 feet off a viaduct during a heavy rainfall in the U.K. The crash left a total of nine people injured.
“We wanted to write with our normal focus on artistry, balanced against an increased level of energy and focus,” Blaizley told Rolling Stone about the new LP. “It was important for us to write our new songs with the type of enthusiasm and expressiveness that could act as a counterpoint to the album’s dark themes. As a result, the music came out in an intense, heavy and sonically captivating in a new way, which was important, loathe, as we are to fall into any kind of complacency pitfall or formulaic songwriting routine.”