here we are with baroness' latest master piece going by the name of simply 'purple'. the record had a massive pre-order time span, starting with the announcement in late august and ending with the release date in late december of 2015. four month of waiting. it actually doesn't bother me, it just appears that more and more bands/labels are managing things this way.
must have something to do with the increased vinyl demand everywhere and the thus full order books at the pressing plants. anyway, i heard news of the pre-orders for 'purple' quite early and i really would have liked to order a purple/white split copy but due to oversea shipping costs i refused. i think i was too slow anyway. the more limited stuff had been sold out pretty quickly,
so i sat back and said to myself to wait for a german distro to have some coloured vinyl in stock. emp.de was the first and i immediately grabbed a copy. the description only said purple coloured vinyl and so i assumed it would be the solid purple colour-way of which there is a shitload around. when my package showed up at the end of the last year, i was pleasantly surprised to see that i just obtained a translucent marbled version.
but now to the music. this baby is one awesome piece of catchy weirdness. i like the 'red album', i absolutely love the 'blue record' but i was a little split when it comes to the 'yellow and green', which may have something to do with the fact that i don't own a physical copy but will be corrected soon, and 'purple' blows me away. they are celebrating their very own style with so much passion and sophisticated musical craftsmanship, that i want to spin this piece of plastic over and over again.
besides the musical part, there is this wonderful piece of art which gracefully accompanies the notes. the cover front was, as always with baroness, crafted by john dyer baizley. the inner gatefold and the absolute lovely lp-sized booklet were illustrated by marald van haasteren. the marbled, translucent 180g purple vinyl on top and 'purple' is one of, if not the best baroness record to this point. 900 copies made. can't wait to see them live in hamburg in coming march. abraxan hymns records. 2015.
