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: Dawn Fades’ S/T and Hop Secret Brewing Company’s Provacateur Porter.  

The Metal: Dawn Fades’ S/T

Since delving into the post-metal genre in earnest, I’ve been hungry for more albums to scratch this specific genre itch.  Lucky for me, I found the solution in my own back yard.  I’ve been lucky enough to catch Los Angeles’ own Dawn Fades live before, and that gave me all the incentive I needed to grab the promo for their debut self-titled album.  The group ticks every box that I want from my post-metal, creating music that is at once as spacious and thick as fog, even and maybe especially in its quieter moments.  I love music that feels like it envelops you, and the tracks on Dawn Fades have the weight and breadth to swallow you up, with enough melody and tension to keep you engaged.  Even more so, Dawn Fades manages to do all of this in a concise package that keeps itself from feeling bloated and repetitive.  An absolutely stellar debut.

The Booze: Hop Secret Brewing Company’s Provacateur Porter 

In keeping with today’s theme of Things From My Own Back Yard, I discovered that there is a small brewery practically around the corner from my place of employment, which is good news for me and bad news for my wallet. Hop Secret Brewing Company is tucked away…well in secret, but inside is a cornucopia of good brews.  Today’s offering is their Provacateur Porter, an exemplary dark ale that brings big coffee and cocoa flavors together in a classic way.  Provacateur’s strength, though, is its relatively light body and pronounced bitterness, keeping it from being cloying or heavy.  Its rare to think of dark beer as being ‘crushable,’ even though traditionally stouts were brewed to be just that, but I could drink several cans of this and not think anything of it.  I will definitely be back for more.

Cheers, and be good to each other,

– Vincent