Happy Halloween boys, ghouls, and all creatures of the night! For this All Hallows Eve edition, our offerings are the spooky spectre of a death/black metal debut in Pedestal for Leviathan‘s Enter: Vampyric Manifestation alongside yet another seasonal lager in the form of a collaboration between Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and Störtebeker Brauspezialitäten with Oktoberfest 2025. Drink from the cauldron of heresy.

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The Tunes: Pedestal for Leviathan — Enter: Vampyric Manifestation

Combining brutal death and symphonic black metal may seem like a novel enough combination, yet it was first done to my knowledge all the way back in 2001 by little-known Aussies Darklord on Symphony Satanikka. Pedestal for Leviathan update this genre combo with 2025 extreme metal tendencies in the form of crisp production and near-slam/deathcore riffage. Despite that groan-inducing description assuming you’ve got taste with any similarity to mine, I can’t see too much crowdkilling (or whatever slam fans do) accompanying the sounds of Enter: Vampyric Manifestation with its frequent emphasis on blackened trem-picked riffs backed by furious blast beats (“Lycanthropichrist”). Nevertheless tracks like opener “Chalice Bleeds Intoxicant” undoubtedly have breakdowns, and downtuned, syncopated chugs are a staple throughout the album (“Sanctity of Retribution”, “Karmic Recollection Mirror”) alongside guttural vocals.

Apparently symphonic elements are becoming all the rage in deathcore, but Pedestal for Leviathan manage to keep their sound within more of the symphonic black metal realm with bouncy, choral synths and plucked strings that evoke the atmosphere of some of the more melodramatic acts of the late 1990s/early 2000s; it wouldn’t be complete without a dungeon synth interlude either (“Snow Covered Monolith”). I’m not in love with the sound presented on Enter: Vampyric Manifestation myself due to its close proximity to slam/core (along with short song lengths that don’t quite delve deep enough into the freezing darkness black metal has to offer), but I can definitely see it bridging a gap towards “oldies” extreme metal for younger fans of those aforementioned genres. For a solo act releasing their first full-length Pedestal for Leviathan are doing pretty well for themselves, and I hope they continue to hone their sound ever further.

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Enter: Vampyric Manifestation is available digitally now, with a physical release slated for December 12 through Personal Records. For more information on Pedestal for Leviathan, check out their Instagram page.

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The Booze: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company/Störtebeker Brauspezialitäten — Oktoberfest 2025

My dad grew up in Chico and Sierra Nevada is of course available pretty much anywhere that sells beer, so they’ve long been a staple of my family’s hop brew diet. For the 2025 edition of their seasonal Oktoberfest they partnered with the German brewer Störtebeker Brauspezialitäten, based in Stralsund near the Baltic coast. As expected from a festbier lager, Oktoberfest 2025 is very smooth, very malty, and very tasty. It pours a clear amber, has notes of bread and spice, and is highly aromatic. What more can you ask from such a brew? I’m definitely biased considering the longstanding ties to my immediate and extended family, but despite their nationwide production and distribution I can always count on Sierra Nevada to put out some quality beer. May they forever stay an independent brewery.

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Cheers, and be ghoulish to each other

— Colin