March 2nd, 2014 - A Relentlessly Heavy Cappuccino Stout

Evenin' head bangers and ale lovers!  In celebration of the amazing Pentagram show last night here in Salt Lake City and in celebration of all things doom metal, I'm pairing Pentagram's wonderful 1985 album "Relentless" with a Lagunitas Brewing Company Cappuccino Stout!  Hell yeah!!

Lagunitas Brewing Company Cappuccino Stout is brewed with Sebastopol's Own Hard Core Coffee, giving it a wonderful richness.  It pours a nearly ink black, opaque dark brown with a thin, but sustained mocha head that leaves thickly layered spider web lacing.  The nose is subtle and smells of roasted coffee beans, dark chocolate, and vanilla.  Medium to full-bodied, the mouthfeel is like Bobby Liebling's vocals: very silky, very creamy, and very smooth, but with some good edge.  IBU is 29.5 and ABV is 9.2% in a 1 pint, 6 ounce bottle.  This is no small brew!  The flavor is quite rich, very complex, and very satisfying.  There are notes of rich and sweet gourmet coffee, dark roasted malts, cocoa, vanilla bean, and marshmallow.  There are also more subtle notes of bourbon or maybe rum, molasses, and a hint of smoked oak.  The bigger ABV is hidden well by creaminess and bitterness.  The Cappuccino Stout finishes with a nice chocolatiness that lingers on the tongue.

I cannot think of anything that goes better with a big, robust coffee stout than some sludgy, complex, and kick-ass doom metal... cranked up to 11!!  Although the band had been playing since 1971, "Relentless", their first full-length studio album was released in 1985.  The album was originally recorded and released in 1982 as a self-titled demo, but the band decided to re-record and remaster some of the tracks and then re-released the album as "Relentless" 3 years later.  The delivery on this album is absolutely stellar!  Each song is a mind-blowing trip of the heaviest of the heavy: "Death Row", "All Your Sins", "Sign Of The Wolf (Pentagram)", "The Ghoul", the title track "Relentless", "Run My Course", "Sinister", "The Deist", "You're Lost, I'm Free", "Dying World", and "20 Buck Spin", all doom metal monsters of the utmost depth and integrity!!  Along with vocalist Liebling, Victor Griffin (lead and rhythm guitar), Martin Swaney (bass guitar), and Joe Hasselvander (drums) lay it the hell down!!  Man, this is soooooo good!!!  (I'm gonna need some serious massage therapy on my neck from all this head banging!)

I leave you with an AMAZING pic from last night's show taken by my buddy, photographer Lance Good!  Cheers!!



 Pentagram vocalist and frontman Bobby Liebling
 at In The Venue, Salt Lake City, Utah 3/1/2014.
Photo by Lance Good (used with permission).