I took a week off from this… but I don’t exactly remember why. Regardless, Mr. Manny did a great (better) job of covering a nice booze/metal combination to welcome in your weekends. Unfortunately for all of you, I’m coming at you again for this week. I have a nice weekend come up filled wholesome fun with friends and family. Just kidding, I’ll be getting shitty because it’s Market Square Day on Saturday. So what does that leave us for the here and now? Something… a bit more mellow. The Metal: Fen’s Dustwalker. The Booze: Two Roads Honeyspot Road IPA.
The Metal: Fen – Dustwalker (2012)
The British post black metallers have been around since 2006, but I only discovered them in 2012 at a small one-off festival known as Winter Is Coming. Given the fact that the festival was headlined by Agalloch, Fen’s inclusion is fairly obvious. While I didn’t take too much away from that show aside from thinking they sounded solid for almost-Agalloch, a few months further down the line found my interest in this band skyrocket. And it was all a result of Dustwalker. You can probably take a guess at what they sound like. But there’s something about the way that this album meanders between beauty and pain over seven fairly long tracks that just hits with you. But if I had to point to a moment — and honestly, it’s the ‘moments’ of an album that define their longevity — nothing stands out more than the introduction to “Hands of Dust”. It’s a slow build with these absolutely enchanting individual guitar notes. Eventually the bass, percussion, and lyrics kick in, but there’s a point in time after four minutes where the sound and lyrics just elevate. It gives me chills. Dustwalker is filled with moments like these, and as a result has become an album I refer back to regularly.
The Booze: Two Roads Honeyspot Road IPA
Two Roads has become one of my favorite breweries recently. Based in Connecticut… somewhere, they make some of the better hoppy beers I’ve had in awhile (that isn’t called Heady Topper). So I was optimistic going into this beer; pitched as an unfiltered IPA brewed with wheat. Wheat = summer and delicious. IPA = …hops. (I brew beer semi-professionally so DO NOT read into my high level explanations and assume I’m an idiot.) Anyway, this particular beer certainly is perfect for summer; it’s sweet, refreshing, light, filled with flavor… except one… hops. To me, this lacks the balance that I expected from such a beer with such a pitch. Delicious for sure, but it tastes just a little light on the ingredients that would define its categorization. Maybe that’s for the best. Strong, dry IPAs have been known to ruin me over a long summer day. So, with that in mind, I’ll sip on this delicious number while kicking back to the delicate darkness of Fen blasting through my speakers.
Alrighty! It’s Friday, people. Stop reading this shit and go enjoy some of what I described above. But if you want to follow in my low-lying shoes this evening, I must say that the two of these elements do come together nicely. Both are light and can really put you at peace. If only I was outside and not sitting at my desk. Alas.
“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– Corey
