October 25th, 2014 - The Impossible Brutality Of The Road Warrior

Good afternoon brew and metal warriors!!  Your head-banging drinking buddy the Meista here with another great pairing for you today... I'm going with Kreator's "Enemy Of God" and a Road Warrior Imperial Rye India Pale Ale (IPA) from Green Flash Brewing Company!!  Oh, hell yeah!!

Released on January 10th, 2005 through SPV/Steamhammer, "Enemy Of God" is the 11th studio album by German thrashers Kreator, a band I consider to be one of the best thrash metal bands out there.  And this album may very well be my favorite by the band and is definitely an all-time favorite thrash metal album in my collection.  Along with there usual thrash metal intensity, Kreator incorporated the "Gothenburg" approach into the "Enemy Of God" album.  They had experimented somewhat with the style on their previous album, "Violent Revolution", but with "Enemy Of God" it became much more prevalent.  (FYI: Gothenburg, commonly called melodic death metal, is a style made popular in the Gothenburg, Sweden metal scene... thus the name.  The style combines elements of NWOBHM and death metal.)   Anyway, what I love about this album is how it requires demands your full attention.  There's no filler, no fluff, and definitely no apology from Kreator.  From the very first note of opener and title track "Enemy Of God" on to the closing notes of "The Ancient Plague", Mille and the boys bring the heavy metal hammer down upon you with the same aggression, fire, and brevity of their early albums.  Here's the complete mind-altering track list:

1. "Enemy Of God"
2. "Impossible Brutality"
3. "Suicide Terrorist"
4. "World Anarchy"
5. "Dystopia"
6. "Voices Of The Dead"
7. "Murder Fantasies"
8. "When Death Takes Its Dominion"
9. "One Evil Comes - A Million Follow"
10. "Dying Race Apocalypse"
11. "Under A Total Blackened Sky"
12. "The Ancient Plague"

So I had originally planned on going with a nice German Oktoberfest brew to go with those crazy German thrashers, Kreator, but "Enemy Of God" is just too heavy, too in-your-face, too brutal for a mellower lager or Pilsner... so I decided to go with the bitter intensity of a Road Warrior Imperial Rye IPA from Green Flash Brewing Company!  Combining the peppery bite of a rye ale and the bitter-sweet aggression of a double IPA, the Road Warrior is a big, brash, and somewhat boozy 9% ABV Imperial IPA.  It pours a beautifully cloudy copper-red with  1/2 finger beige head that leaves sticky and intricate lacing with great retention.  The nose is very rustic and earthy along with sweet malt and floral/citrus hop aromas.  There are big aromas of pine, grapefruit, lemon zest, burnt toffee, and peppery rye.  You can't help but notice the slight scent of boozy bourbon as well, although it is well hidden in the hop and caramel notes.  Medium bodied with low carbonation, the mouthfeel is dry, yet slightly sticky.  The taste is like the nose, big and aggressive.  There are notes of black tea, freshly baked rye bread, black pepper, pine resin, and grapefruit.  The light and medium crystal malts provide some caramel/toffee sweetness, but that sweet flavor is quickly overpowered by the bitterness of the hops and rye.  The finish is very dry and very biting... just like "Enemy Of God"!

Keep it heavy and keep it craft!!  Prost!!  Hails!!