Nine Circles

Receiving the Evcharist is our weekly feature where we pair choice albums with our favorite libations.  Drink from the cup of heresy. This week’s offering: Avast’s Mother Culture and Pizza Port Brewing Company’s Party Shirt.  

The Metal: Avast’s Mother Culture

It’s always a treat when I get an email from our editor with a promo that he thinks I’ll like; it’s an even bigger joy when he’s right (he’s very rarely wrong).  This is how I came to find Avast, and to get to sample their new album Mother Culture.  Avast combine driving rhythms and aggressive vocals with warm melody and pastoral, reverb-drenched quieter sections to create the kind of lofty, romantic post-black metal that is my comfort food.  Songs like the title track, “Birth of Man,” and “An Earnest Desire” show a band equally adept at letting loose and holding back, and knowing how to balance the two sides of themselves just so.  It’s this kind of build and break tension, coupled with the transcendental melody, that gets me every time.  Mother Culture is an album that fans of this style should not pass on.

The Booze: Pizza Port Brewing Company’s Party Shirt

Just as with album art, the art on a can of beer can sculpt your impression of the drink before you even take the first sip.  There’s been plenty of beer I’ve bought because the art on the can was appealing, and plenty I’ve bought because the art on the can led me to know it would taste like something I would enjoy.  Pizza Port Brewing Company’s Party Shirt IPA is a case where I bought the drink expecting one thing, yet ended up with something entirely different.  The palm trees and Hawaiian-esque beach display led me to expect something tropical and fruity, so when the first sip hit with that piney West Coast style bitterness, I was a bit taken aback.  That cognitive disconnect sat with me even after a few cans, but once past that, its easy to appreciate Party Shirt for what it is instead of what you thought it would be.  This is a crowd-pleasing California IPA, aptly named because you’ll want to bring this to your upcoming Halloween parties.

That’s all folks.  I’ll catch you next time.  Until then,

Cheers, and be good to each other,

– Vincent