Baroness 'Blue Record'

Back in October I got to see one of my favourite bands perform live, thanks to my very kind flatmate who bought me a ticket as a late birthday present (they were awesome, as evidenced here). Baroness probably aren't to everyone's taste, being metal-y (add whichever subgenre you like), but they're great musicians and incredible performers who've toured with the likes of Metallica, Mastodon & Lamb of God. Last year they were travelling on their UK tour and had a pretty horrendous bus crash, which resulted in fractured vertebrae for both their drummer Allen Blickle and their bass player Matt Maggioni and ended up causing them to leave the band. John Dyer Baizley and Pete Adams remained and recruited two new members, Nick Jost and Sebastian Thomson. This year was one of recovery and rehearsal for the band and it'd have been understandable if there'd been a far longer hiatus - however, they were out and about on tour across Europe just over a year after the accident; and lucky for me, in London. The guys put on an incredible show, and I even made a little purchase... a copy of the Blue Record on vinyl. The vinyl they were selling at the show came with a little disclaimer - the copies here had been in the bus crash with them, and might have oil damage and the like. However much I'd love to have a vinyl player to listen to this, even if it didn't play I'd still think it was worth the money for the artwork alone. Baizley does the artwork for Baroness' albums and produces art for many other bands - boy, can he draw.