Blue Record

Baroness began writing it in 2007 and recorded it in May and June 2009 at The Track Studio in Plano, Texas, and Elmwood Studio in Dallas. It is the first Baroness album with the guitarist Pete Adams, the first produced by John Congleton, and the last studio recording with the bassist Summer Welch, who left in 2011. It was issued on CD, vinyl, cassette and as a download. The Japanese edition carries a version of the Descendents song "Bikeage", recorded in the same sessions, and a deluxe edition came with a bonus disc of live audio from the band's performance at the 2009 Roadburn Festival. A video for "A Horse Called Golgotha" premiered on 7 November 2009, and on 31 August 2010 Relapse issued the song as a seven-inch single with "Bikeage" as its b-side. "Swollen and Halo" was used in the 2010 video game MLB 10: The Show. The reviews were very strong: 87 out of 100 on Metacritic across eight critics. Phil Freeman of AllMusic gave it five stars, saying "Baroness has made a subtle but unmistakable evolutionary leap on Blue Record, their second full-length and a clear companion piece to 2007's Red Album", and calling it "a ferocious album that's not afraid to be genuinely beautiful". The running order here is the original's as printed.