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: Teeth’s The Curse of Entropy and The Kraken Rum.
The Metal: Teeth’s The Curse of Entropy
I am very pleased once again to be able to use this column to spotlight a favorite local band of mine. I became aware of Teeth after their split with Barghest in 2016, but didn’t even realize they were local to me until I started seeing their name all over concert posters recently. I was lucky enough to catch them in January opening for Primitive Man and Ulthar and since that performance I have gone out of my way to catch Teeth every chance I get. Their brand of deathgrind-by-way-of-Gorguts is totally unique amongst the death metal scene we have here in Los Angeles, and live the band is an absolute force of nature. That same energy is present in spades on Teeth’s new full-length The Curse of Entropy. From the second you hit play on this thing until just before the very end of the album, there is almost no breathing room, whether from the terrifying speed of blast-beat driven grind or the suffocating atmosphere of the dissonant chords that ring over neck-breaking sludge sections. The combination of nauseating atmosphere and brutal technicality is infectious, with moments of jaw-dropping musicianship (new drummer Alejandro Aranda is, no joke, one of the best drummers I have ever seen), and moments of ignorant, chunky-riffed goodness. Entropy is unrelenting, with the physicality of a tornado of fists whaling on your eardrums, and it hits almost every note I want from a death metal album across its 30 minute run time. It’s a late entry to the game, but definitely warrants consideration as one of the best death metal albums of the year.
The Booze: The Kraken Rum
It’s the day before Thanksgiving (the US one) when I’m writing this. I didn’t find anything of note for this column while out last weekend, and I’m not going to brave any stores today. We are, instead, going to use what is available to us, which happens to be… my partner’s rum tonight. Sorry honey. The Kraken is an extremely dark, spiced rum, strong in both flavor and alcohol content. The nose is caramel and vanilla, and the taste is very caramel forward with notes of warming spice in the finish. This isn’t really something I would drink straight, so I ended up mixing mine with a can of cranberry lime sparkling water. Again, whatever’s on hand. It ended up tasting a little like cranberry sauce though, so I think that’s appropriate. The absolute Pro Move here is to mix this with ginger ale or ginger beer though; the ginger and vanilla notes play excellent with each other. All in all, for something that I expected would be better left in my college days, I’m finding myself fond of this.
Cheers, and be good to each other,
– Vincent
