Hot food, cold beer and blistering metal
I listen to a lot of music. Specifically, I spend a lot of time listening to metal. How I listen to it depends on where I am. Under normal home-listening circumstances, I generally prefer to listen to full albums from start to finish. That's how the band gave their music to the world; the particular... Continue Reading →
Rebellion is a refusal to accept the mores of one's society, and an embracing of an alternate value set that is diametrically opposed to those rejected conventions. Accordingly, rebellion indirectly reflects those norms, providing a negative image of the values of a society. As societal mores vary from culture to culture, rebelliousness necessarily manifests itself... Continue Reading →
Most of the beer that I drink nowadays is made in North Carolina; more so, a lot of it is brewed locally. Particularly the hoppy stuff. That's not a slap at other states, it's just the fact that I can get world-class beer right at my doorstep, fresher and faster than if it is transported... Continue Reading →
Imperial Milk Stout, 4.9% ABV appearance: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | mouthfeel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5 A slightly viscous pour of this seasonal spiced Milk Stout yields a medium, slightly rocky brown head on an enthusiastically effervescent black body with sullen orange highlights; head retention is brief but lacing is excellent, consisting... Continue Reading →
Top Ten Metal CDs of 2018 2018 was another great year for metal. While a lot of my favorite bands did not release LPs this year— notably missing are Desaster, Overkill, Toxic Holocaust, Midnight, Vader, Nile, Ares Kingdom, Deströyer 666 and Cannibal Corpse— a lot of death metal and black/hybrid bands filled in the gaps... Continue Reading →
Released on the 16th of November, Mentor's second album Cults, Crypts and Corpses is a late entry in the race for Album of the Year 2018, but it has quickly made up for lost time, sprinting past Wrathrone's Reflections of Torment to take the lead. Mentor are a Polish band whose 2016 debut Guts, Graves... Continue Reading →
The Witches - Stacy Schiff Back Bay Books/Little, Brown and Company 496 pp. Stacy Schiff's 2015 release The Witches is a thoroughly-researched, thoroughly end-noted (57 pages of them) non-ficton study of the New England witch panic of the early 1690s and the witchcraft trials that followed, with the main focus being on the town of... Continue Reading →
American IPA, 4.9% ABV appearance: 3.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | mouthfeel: 3.75 | overall: 4 This session IPA pours to a medium pebbly white head that quickly degrades to a ring atop a clear, slightly sparkling golden beer. On the nose, it is all hops: a nice strong blend of citrus, pine... Continue Reading →
Märzen, 5.8% ABV appearance: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | mouthfeel: 4 | overall: 3.75 This Märzen pours to a briefly-lived, slightly pebbly medium off-white head on a singularly dusky medium-amber body, which is clear and slightly sparkling. The nose is expectedly moderate in intensity: bready malt and apples with a slight noble... Continue Reading →
