Nine Circles

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends.  I’m so glad to see you reading, so come inside and take a look at what we’ve got geared up. 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: Vessel of Iniquity’s The Doorway and Pipework Brewing Company’s Blood of the Unicorn.

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The Tunes: Vessel of Iniquity’s The Doorway

“Lethal”; “majestic”; “abominable”; “mechanized aural weaponry”; a “horrific experiment of overwhelming sensorial annihilation”; these are just some of the choice phrases used to describe The Doorway.  Where other albums try to kill you with kindness, The Doorway just wants to “kill you” kill you, and there is no depth that it won’t sink to in order to achieve its Terminator-like goal of the abject subjugation of every facet of your being.  Might not sound like an album you would want to listen to, but how it gets there is a fascinating journey, even if it’s not packed with subtlety.  Furious, unrelenting grind partner up with earsplitting washes of harsh electronic noise (in the purest sense of the word and genre), with just a kiss of angular, jarring black metal riffs to help it all wash down, The Doorway is an album that is frigid and cruel in its inorganic, mechanical coldness.  Seriously, even the drum machines sound like machine gun fire aimed straight at you, as the screams and static whir and bore deep into the primal parts of your brain.  This is an album that is almost one note, although it is primarily loud above all else.  It’s actually got a nice amount of ambient creepiness and slower, doomier passages that help keep things interesting, especially since something this sonically dense needs breathing room, even if it doesn’t exactly want to let up.  Ultimately, The Doorway does what it sets out to do in spades; sure, it’s not going to be for everyone, but if you’re looking for an album that is the exact sound of the technopocalypse, then this one’s for you.

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The Booze: Pipeworks Brewing Company’s Blood of the Unicorn

I tried to find the most metal beer I had in my beer fridge to pair with an album so oppressively destructive.  Turns out, it’s either this or PBR, so we’re going with this!  Pipeworks Brewing Company proudly operate out of Sweet Home Chicago, and Blood of the Unicorn is one of their mainstays at taphouses and even my friendly local Trader Joe’s.  It’s a hoppy red ale that, like the album it is paired with, delivers on exactly the promise it makes: it is pretty hoppy on the initial sip, thanks to a hefty dose of American hops, but that burst of bitterness is almost immediately mellowed out by malt sweetness and a smooth, crisp finish.  At 6.5%, it’s doesn’t pack the strongest punch, but it’s enough to get you there, and what’s more, it’s so well balanced that it’s easy to get lost drinking several of these in a row.  Plus, that can art is definitely metal enough to make the cut here.

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That’s all folks.  As we always say, unless we forget: cheers and be good to each other.

-Ian