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: Rorcal’s Muladona and Trader Joe’s 2019 Vintage Ale.
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The Metal: Rorcal’s Muladona
Special thanks goes to our very own Anton for this week’s album. I was wracking my brain trying to come up with something from this year to write about when he informed me that Rorcal’s newest album had somehow flew completely under my radar, and also reminded me that I really like this band in the process. Rorcal have created something truly, deeply unsettling with Muladona, drawing inspiration from Eric Stener Carlson’s 2016 novel of the same name (and even conscripting the author himself to provide spoken word voiceover’s for the album), weaving a tale of supreme horror both man-made and supernatural together with their ferocious musical attack. The songs on Muladona are both shorter and less winding in structure than 2016’s Creon, and the tighter song structures help to accentuate the overwhelming atmosphere the story conjures up, letting the band’s mix of black metal, sludge, drone, and post-hardcore sweep the listener up in the tale. Rorcal have always succeeded in crafting albums that are both narratively and musically engaging, and Muladona is a triumph among their discography, managing to create something that is emotionally moving across its entire scope, musically and lyrically; it’s the total package.
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The Booze: Trader Joe’s 2019 Vintage Ale
This will be the last Evcharist I’ll be writing in 2019, and tonight’s brew feels like a good one to use to close all of this out. As with last year’s version of this brew (which I covered at the start of 2019 here), Trader Joe’s Vintage Ale series are brewed for the grocery chain by Unibroue in the style of traditional Belgian dark ales and aged on the residual yeast and particulates left over from wine making. Where I described the last vintage of this beer to be heavier on the spice, 2019’s is much more focused on the fruity and wine-y notes, with a sweetness and tartness that cuts through the rich body of the beer. The spices hit in the finish to round things out and create a warm sensation as the beer goes down the throat, leaving a pleasant lingering heat in the chest. This is a complex and richly satisfying beer that gets better with every sip.
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Cheers, and be good to each other,
– Vincent
Nine Circles 