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: Craven Idol’s Forked Tongues and The Bruery’s Frucht Cucumber.
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The Tunes: Craven Idol’s Forked Tongues
Craven Idol are a guaranteed good time. They’re one of those bands that I got put on to way back when I started out at Nine Circles (I both reviewed The Shackles of Mammon and interviewed the band prior to its release), so in addition to the quality, I always feel a particular attachment to their music. When Forked Tongues was announced for release, it was a no-brainer that I was going to grab the promo. But even knowing that I was going to like this album, I was still blindsided by just how good it was. Forked Tongues is replete with enough “OUGH”s, wailing shrieks, and furious thrashing to satisfy anyone looking for black thrash to scratch an itch, but the strength of Craven Idol is always found when looking beyond the surface. The band here play like men possessed, more furious in pace and tone than ever before; even stompier cuts like “The Wrath of Typhon” and “Deify the Stormgod” feel like they’re happening so fast that the whole band is in danger of falling apart from each other, and the fact that somehow they all keep up with each others brain-warping pace is only a testament to the musicianship presented here. Craven Idol have also steeped their music in an apocalyptic atmosphere, using warped guitar harmonies, eerie choirs of vocals, and touches of death metal to add to the chilling factor, nowhere more so than the mournful final track “The Gods Have Left Us for Dead,” a title which drives home the mood. Forked Tongues is far and away some of the most creative music of its kind, transcending beyond the often low-hanging ambitions of other black/thrash bands and creating something that I think will become a landmark album in this little micro-genre, to say nothing of its inevitable spot on year-end lists everywhere.
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The Booze: The Bruery’s Frucht Cucumber
The smattering of Eastern European in my genetic roots has bestowed me with a love for all things pickled and vegetal, so while others may turn their nose up at the notion of a cucumber sour, I dive in head-first. This style of beer isn’t always the easiest to find though, and the quality can range pretty drastically among the ones you can, so I’m very pleased to be able to recommend The Bruery’s Frucht Cucumber in the strongest possible terms. The foeders it is aged on give a complexity and depth to the beer, but the cucumber is light and refreshing, balancing out both this depth and the aggressive tartness from the souring process. It’s a bit like how cucumber is used in Southeast Asian food to cleanse the palate after eating something that is either too greasy or assertively spicy; you get a strong, bracing sour ale up front followed by a cool, refreshing hit of cucumber that stays remarkably intact in flavor compared to its raw counterpart considering the process involved. This edition of The Bruery’s Frucht series manages to maintain both the integrity of the Berliner weisse style and the fruit used to flavor it while marrying them together in the best possible way.
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Cheers, and be good to each other,
– Vincent
Nine Circles 