Hello friends! The Meista here with another metal and craft beer pairing for you. Today I am pairing "L'Enfant Sauvage" by French, progressive death metal act Gojira and for an accompanying brew I am going with La Fin du Monde Tripel-Style Golden Ale from Unibroue Brewing Company located in Quebec, Canada. This pairing goes out to my metal friends and heroes, John Forgach and Cody D. from extreme metal radio show extraordinaire, Maximum Distortion! Cheers and hails gentlemen!!
"L'Enfant Sauvage" (French for "the Wild Child") is Gojira's 5th studio album and was released in June 2012. Complex, multi-layered, technical, emotional, aggressive, and wonderful, "L'Enfant Sauvage" is a breathtaking work of art. Not easily classified, Gojira employs heavy, death/thrash metal beats and guitar attacks coupled with neo-progressive and technical mastery... think Porcupine Tree meets Job For A Cowboy or King Crimson meets Strapping Young Lad. (I don't even think that analogy does this band justice.) They incorporate textured atmospheric elements, ever-changing and uncommon rhythm patterns, and nonstandard verse and chorus progressions with very aggressive, very intense metal elements. The guitar work on "L'Enfant Sauvage" is crisp and precise, but there are some very cool low tones as well. The drumming is fantastic... every strike perfectly executed. Double-bass work can be overdone and often is by many death metal and black metal drummers, but Mario Duplantier's is so well executed and timed that it fits like a glove almost unnoticeable. He reminds me a lot of Igor Cavalera. And speaking of Cavalera, like Igor's brother Max, frontman, guitarist, and songwriter, Joe Duplantier's lyrics are honest and heartfelt and delivered with passion... sometimes growled, sometimes screamed, sometimes delivered clean, and always dead-on. Opening track "Explosia" is brutal and booming. Songs like "Liquid Fire," "The Wild Healer," "Mouth Of Kala," "The Gift Of Guilt," and "Born In Winter" are intricate and intriguing works of depth and complexity. "The Axe," "Planned Obsolescence," and "The Fall" are profoundly intense and fiery death metal blasters. Of the album, Joe Duplantier stated in an interview earlier this year, "'What is freedom? What does it mean to me?' L'Enfant Sauvage reflects on that. There’s no answer though. There’s just life and questions."
La Fin du Monde (French for “the end of the world”) was developed by Unibroue from 18 months of research on a unique strain of European-born yeast. Characterized by a complex layering of malt notes, ester notes, and exotic spice notes and followed by a nice, dry finish, La Fin du Monde is a delightful Belgian tripel. The nose is a perfect blend of ester notes and spice notes. It pours a pale-gold straw with a nice, white, 1-finger head. Highly carbonated, La Fin du Monde has a bubbly and somewhat creamy mouthfeel. The flavor is crisp and delicious. There are notes of banana, white grape, sour apple, and bubble gum along with the spice notes: nutmeg, clove, and a hint of cinnamon and white pepper. With the triple fermentation and blended spices and esters, La Fin du Monde is a very robust, but very drinkable and refreshing ale. As I said before, it has a very dry, clean finish, but with a nice, slight aftertaste of ester.
I've really enjoyed this pairing... Gojira is an absolutely phenomenal and underrated band and the complexity, depth, and balance of La Fin du Monde really brings out the intricacies and robust musical dialog of "L'Enfant Sauvage"! And you MUST check out the BEST metal show out there at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Maximum-Distortion-KRCL-909FM/200849236596586?fref=ts!!
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