Nine Circles

Here I be. Filling in again. Once again listening to an album I’ve never explored before whilst sipping on a beverage I also haven’t explored (recently). I’m not going to introduce this as elaborately as in past adventures, so let’s just jump right into it. Tonight we have Veilburner’s A Sire To The Ghouls Of Lunacy and Great Rhythm’s Dolce. 

The Metal: Veilburner’s A Sire To The Ghouls Of Lunacy

The great thing about this particular piece of content is that whenever I get to cover it, it’s an excuse to snag something random from the promo pile and couple it with alcohol. Fast forward a few minutes, and we have ourselves the latest from complex black/death group Veilburner. I never bothered to check out 2016’s The Obscene Rite, despite the positive reviews I stumbled across. So this latest offering, their fourth, is my first time diving into whatever it is they do. And right off the bat I can tell you that this thing is delightfully weird. There’s a heavy dose of the experimental blackened death right away with “Introvertovoid.” It’s out there but somehow still seems logical? Hard to explain. But things go off the rails a bit (in a good way) as we move along. Clean — and daringly mainstream — passages close out “Panoramic Phantoms” before the hastened up/down feel of “Agony On Repeat” brings the darkness and discomfort back. We quickly become accustomed to the wild ride that is A Sire To The Ghouls Of Lunacy as each track transitions to the next. It clocks in at 54 minutes, and given how chaotic each minute is, you definitely feel it. Fortunately, as a result of the constantly changing tempos and level of ferocity, it never grows stale. It’s entrancing in an almost frustrating way, if that makes any sense at all. The varied riff work, technical yet psychedelic structural feel, all mashed together with a rather industrial undertone makes it something that is rather hard to turn away from. It’s weird. And I like weird.

The Booze: Great Rhythm‘s Dolce American Imperial Stout

I’ve been a fan of the GR for quite some time. I would say they are a fairly recent addition to the Portsmouth beer scene, and while they’ve only been around for a handful of years now, the reality is that multiple breweries have opened in the years after their arrival. So at this point, I consider them veterans. When they first opened, I was at their little tasting room multiple times per week. But there was a problem… too much of a good thing. Not to mean I drank too much, that goes without saying. But for awhile they stuck with various IPAs. And as delicious as they were, to put it simply, it got boring. I’m a hophead for sure, but we all need a little variety sometimes. Honestly, a flight of four or more similarly tasting IPAs gets repetitive regardless of quality. Enter, Dolce. I don’t remember when these first dropped, I just remember it being amazing and rekindling my love for Great Rhythm. It’s a brilliant balance of roasty and sweet. Boozy, but refreshing. I don’t frequent GR as much as I used to, but when Dolce drops, you can bet I’ll be waiting in line for my share. If you’re looking for a dense american stout in the middle of dark beer season, it’s hard to do much better than this.

Together, these little numbers make for a curious evening. Veilburner certainly inspires something delicious of the darker variety, but my mind trends towards a black IPA or something along those lines. Dolce, however? D00000000000M metal. But like, happier doom. Does that exist? Who cares. I love dark beer season.

“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– cmb