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: God Alone’s God Alone. and Fremont Brewing Company’s Dark Star Imperial Oatmeal Stout.  

The Metal: God Alone’s God Alone. 

If you are like me and prefer your music to intentionally defy classification, then boy do I have a band for you today.  Ireland’s God Alone are noisey, mathy, avante-garde, and do it all with style on their new, slightly self-titled album.  “Feeling on Tic” plays with alternating heavy and soft dynamics and oblique rhythm shifts, “Ke Ta” features black metal-adjacent blast beats that suddenly warp into synchronized fretboard tapping madness, “Madting” builds from a gloomy intro to a keyboard drenched psychedelic freakout, and album closer “Yes Aii” cuts its harsher sections with exuberant dance rhythms and a jazzy breakdown.  To say God Alone. is a weird album is an understatement, as the band seem to have total commitment to doing whatever they feel like musically whenever they feel like doing it, but it’s their sense of commitment that glues the whole thing together.  There are so many unexpected twists and turns here that even after multiple listens, I find myself startled when some of the more unorthodox sections pop up, but no matter where this album takes me, I’m fully along for the ride.  God Alone. is a perfect example of the kinds of gems you can find when you reach outside of your comfort zone; in truth, this is an album I grabbed purely on a whim, and I wasn’t sure how it would hit me, but what I ended up with is something triumphantly subversive, defiantly unique, and massively fun.

The Booze: Fremont Brewing Company’s Dark Star Imperial Oatmeal Stout

We’re back in stout mode tonight and feeling good.  Seattle’s Fremont Brewing Company brought some good, dark heaviness to their cans of Dark Star, an imperial oatmeal stout.  True to its name, this thing pours black as night, and with that comes an array of bitter coffee and sweet cocoa notes, backed up with a rich body from the oatmeal used in the brewing process.  The 8% ABV puts it on the higher end, but there’s enough going on here that it doesn’t taste boozey, and in my humble opinion, stouts should be high ABV anyway (I think all beer should be at least 6.5% though so take my opinions as you will).  The fact that the can art on this is simply delightful truly makes Dark Star the complete package.

Cheers, and be good to each other,

– Vincent