Nine Circles

How long has it been since I last jumped on one of these? A month or so? …SIX??? Jesus. Guess that means it’s time for me to drink in a more productive capacity for this blog. The good news is that halfway through writing this I’m probably going to pause and walk down to the local record shop to grab a copy of the new Tool album. Do I really feel the need to be there AT MIDNIGHT’S RELEASE? No. But social media has pressured me into thinking I do. Good enough for me. ANYWAY. Tonight I’m sipping on Great Rhythm’s Citrillia and checking out Tenebrae In Perpetuum’s Anorexia Obscura. 

The Metal: Tenebrae In Perpetuum’s Anorexia Obscura

This shit. Is fucking out there. The reality is, the reason I settled on this album is because I wanted some black metal I hadn’t explored yet, and I’ve seen this album come up via email at least half a dozen times between the 9C and my personal inboxes in recent weeks. To be honest, I don’t really know what to make of the fourth full length from the Italian black occult project. It is legitimately 40 minutes of dark… chaos. There is enough familiarity in here, with the dissonant tremolo picking, riffage, and blast beats, to get pulled into it pretty quickly. But all that is supplemented with a truly manic structure and deliverance. Having never checked this project out before, the first few tracks were incredibly jarring. Truly bizarre alarm-ish tones and unsettling spoken screamed lyrical passages fill this thing out. But as I find myself working through the middle and latter stages of the listen, the more into it I am. Sure, there are some misses within everything that’s going on. However, overall this is very much worth checking out. Just be prepared. It’s a ride. Also, spoiler alert: gets better with booze. Oh, Anorexia Obscura is out tomorrow today on Debemur Morti Productions. Strikethroughs for the win!

The Booze: Great Rhythm Brewing Company’s Citrillia IPA

Citrillia is a New England double IPA that clocks in at 8%. It’s double dry hopped with Simcoe, Citra, and Motueka hops, and holy crap is it a juice bomb. Is it a natural choice with my album pick? God no. But it was in my fridge and I wanted one. I used to be huge on the GR (they are less than a mile down the road from me), and then I wasn’t, and now I am again. And this is probably my favorite out of their lineup of impressive IPAs. The thing is however, this is exceptionally hazy even by hazy beer standards. I’m literally watching proteins settle in the bottom of my glass. This could turn a lot of people away from a beer, but it shouldn’t. That shit is harmless and the beer is still delicious. I could try to make up some kind of alignment between the dense complexity of this beer and the album I’m listening to, but that seems too forced. Instead, I’ll just encourage you all to check out both. After all, IPA season is winding down for me, giving way to malty, dark lager season and then eventually porters and stouts because winter-conformity. Anyway, Portsmouth beers win all the time forever. Change my mind.

I’m going to leave my house in search of a new Tool album now. K, bye.

“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– cmb