Best of What's Next: Baroness

HOMETOWN: Savannah, Ga.
ALBUM: Blue Record
MEMBERS: John Baizley (guitar, vocals), Pete Adams (guitar, vocals), Summer Welch (bass), Allen Blickle (drums)
FOR FANS OF: Mastodon, Isis, Torche

Baroness is the complete package. The Savannah-based group rivals fellow Georgia metalmen Mastodon in terms of rhapsodic, speaker-crushing prog-metal, and frontman John Baizley handles the presentation front, authoring the group’s concert visuals and the intricate, color-coded cover art of their two LPs: Red Album (2007) and Blue Record (2009). Baroness tours and records practically non-stop, but even fresh off the European summer festival circuit, Baizley is entirely serene about his band’s M.O. “I’m just not pinned into stress and fame,” he says. “I’d rather focus on what’s important—creativity and the performance. I let the pomp and glitz slide by, when possible.”

WHAT’S NEXT: After playing some opening gigs for Metallica and Deftones this fall, Baroness will start working on their third album. “There’s already three or four hours worth of stuff pre-written,” Baizley says. “We’ve got a start, so I think we’re going to officially sit down and put some form to it in 2011.”