July 3rd, 2014 - Mr. Huff Is A Nothingface!

 

Good evening!  The Meista here with a one more pairing for you tonight, a north-of-the-border pairing, eh...  I'm going with Voivod's wonderful "Nothingface" and a Mr. Huff Pale Ale from Hop City Brewing Company outta Brampton, Ontario, Canada!

Released on October 13, 1989, "Nothingface" is the 5th (and most successful to date) studio album by Canadian speed/punk/thrash/prog metal band Voivod.  Although still very heavy and aggressive (from their influence from American hardcore punk and NWOBHM), "Nothingface" marked a bit of a change musically for Voivod.  In the tradition of early '70s prog bands like Yes and Genesis, Voivod found inspiration and influence from classical composers, specifically in the ballet and orchestral concert "The Rites Of Spring" by Igor Stravinsky.   This is most prevalent in the song "Pre-Ignition".  To further this progressive direction, the band covered Pink Floyd's psychedelic masterpiece "Astronomy Domine", which helped make the album their biggest seller.  But don't let the progressive influence fool you... this is still very heavy and powerful metal!  Songs like the title track, the Alice Cooper-esque "Missing Sequences", "X-Ray Mirror", "Inner Combustion", "Into My Hypercube", and "Sub-Effect" are all head-banging monster rockers!  At the time, Voivod was made up of Denis Bélanger (aka Snake) on vocals, the late Denis D'Amour (aka Piggy) on guitars, Jean-Yves Thériault (aka Blacky) on bass guitar, and Michel Langevin (aka Away) on drums.  (A graphic artist as well as a drummer, Langevin also designed and created the album cover for "Nothingface" as he has for all their albums to date.  He also was hired by Dave Grohl for the Probot album cover.)

Mr. Huff Pale Ale from Hop City Brewing Company is a very sessionable, 5.4% ABV, 40 IBU pale ale brewed with both American and UK hops, as well as "a unique blend of 7 malts".  The malt varieties (Pale Malt, Carastan, 2 types of Crystal, Munich, Caramel 80L, Black Malt, Torrified Wheat) gives Mr. Huff a sweet, bready flavor and body, and the 5 varieties of hops (Cascade, Chinook, East Kent Golding, and UK Fuggle) gives Mr. Huff a very floral and herbal bite.  It pours a hazy, reddish-orange copper with a big, frothy white head that leaves billowy lacing.  The nose is quite sweet for a pale ale with only underlying floral hop aromas.  It smells more like a Scotch ale or a red.  The flavor is more along the lines of a traditional pale ale, yet those 7 varieties of malts are still rather prevalent.  Notes of crackery pale malt, caramel malt, and floral hoppiness abound.  Mr. Huff is smooth and very drinkable... great for rocked out to "Nothingface"!

Cheers you hosers!!