When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When life gives you a cool album to talk about and a fantastic beer you’ve been looking for over the past year, you make a Evcharist. Hello once again. Today I’ll be introducing you to Vuur & Zijde’s Boezem and Dokkaebier’s Milk Stout.

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The Tunes: Vuur & Zijde’s Boezem

My love of Dutch black metal is no secret at this point, as is my current obsession with all things soft, noir, goth, and dreamy, so when I get the opportunity to write about a band that not only features members of Dutch black metal luminaries AND includes Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance among its influences, it’s small wonder I snapped this album up as fast as I did. Boezem is the debut full-length from Vuur & Zijde (“fire and silk” in the Dutch language), evolving from the band’s more metal-focused songs on their previous split with Impavida to branch out into new sonic territories. Musically sitting somewhere between the iconoclastic goth rock of Killing Joke and the experimental black metal of Laster, Terzij de Horde, and Grey Aura its membership boasts, Boezem is not just a mashup of the two styles, but a true marriage of the best of both, dark pitted against dark and light against light. Singer Famke flawlessly channels the spirit of Elizabeth Frasier while the rest of the band undulate in and out of shimmering post-punk, black metal roar, and a more pulsing industrial groove, often contrasting these motifs in unexpected ways. I can’t think of a world where I wouldn’t love this album given its crafters and inspirations, but Boezem comes together in a way that is so cohesive it even surprised me. This is going to be guaranteed to get many repeat listens from me.

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The Booze: Dokkaebier’s Milk Stout

It has been almost one year to the day since the last time I wrote a Evcharist, and in the last edition I raved wildly about Dokkaebier’s Kimchi Sour Ale, one of the most unique beers I have ever had the pleasure of tasting. Since finding this drink, I have had my eyes peeled for anything else by this brewery I could sample, with one offering in particular that I finally managed to track down last weekend, despite the season shifting towards lighter fare. Dokkaebier’s milk stout may seem unassuming at first glance, but the addition of off-the-beaten-path spices to the mix makes it more complex and interesting than any other stout I’ve had. At first sip, you get the kind of rich texture and roasted malt notes one would expect from a milk stout. This, however, is merely the bait before the switch, as a strong hit of cardamom punches through with unexpected citrus notes, cutting the richness and fading into a smooth, warm finish, punctuated with a subtle burn from green peppercorns that builds with every sip. It’s the kind of overwhelming flavor combination that breaks your brain for a second, but every pause makes me want to dive back in to try to decipher its riddle once again. Much like the Kimchi Sour Ale previously, I have never drank any beer that I could compare this to, and it is easily among my favorite stouts I have ever had.

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Cheers, and be good to each other,

– Vincent