The Bad Penny (beta)

Now two decades deep into their career, Baroness have the shrapnel to show for it. Anyone with fleeting familiarity of the stoner-metal band knows of the horrific 2012 bus crash that injured four of its members and almost tolled the death knell for the band. But more than 10 years later, the incident appears to be—if not a distant memory—a road bump in the timeline of a band that’s never released a poorly received album. The frequent comparisons to fellow Georgians Mastodon that Baroness drew early in their career fell by the wayside, especially after the crash. The band led by John Baizley cemented its own status as a hard-hitting but redemptive and invigorating group that brought broad strokes of color and flair to a sludgy subgenre.

For my latest FLOOD feature, Baroness members Nick Jost and Sebastian Thomson walk us through the Savannah, Georgia–based metal group’s sixth full-length.