April 26th, 2015 - Glory To The Noche De Los Muertos!

Good evening!  The Meista here tonight pairing two things that make me very, very happy... "Glory To The Brave" by Swedish power metal giants HammerFall and a Noche De Los Muertos Imperial Stout from Aztec Brewing Company outta Vista, California!
 
Album Info:

• Artist: HammerFall
• Title: "Glory To The Brave"
• Recorded: Late 1996 through April 1997 at Studio Fredman, Göteborg, Sweden
• Release date: June 27th, 1997 (debut album by HammerFall)
• Record company: Nuclear Blast
• Album cover art: Andreas Marschall
• Personnel:  Joacim Cans (lead vocals and background harmonies), Oscar Dronjak (guitar and backing vocals), Fredrik Larsson (bass guitar and backing vocals), Glenn Ljungström (guitar), and Patrik Räfling (drums)
• Additional musicians: Hans Björk (backing vocals), Stefan Elmgren (lead and acoustic guitar), Mats Hansson (lead guitar), Niklas Isfeldt (background harmonies), and Fredrik Nordström (grand piano, keyboard, and backing vocals)
• Musical style: Power metal, speed metal
• Sound: Fast, melodic, soaring... a few adjectives that describe the music on "Glory To The Brave".  HammerFall is wonderfully powerful and beautifully aggressive!
• Major themes: In the vein of Dio and Manowar, many of HammerFall's songs fall in the category of sword and sorcery fantasy.  On the surface, themes include knights and warriors battling dragons, sword play, wizardry, etc.  However,  upon further analysis, the thematic nature of the album becomes more apparent... honor, bravery, truth, etc. 
• Tracks:   

1. "The Dragon Lies Bleeding"
2. "The Metal Age"
3. "HammerFall"
4. "I Believe"
5. "Child Of The Damned" (Warlord cover)
6. "Steel Meets Steel"
7. "Stone Cold"
8. "Unchained"
9. "Glory To The Brave"
10. "Ravenlord" (Stormwitch cover)

    Brew Info:

• Brewery: Aztec Brewing Company (Vista, California)
• Website: http://aztecbrewery.com/home.html
• Brew: Noche De Los Muertos Imperial Stout
• Style: Russian Imperial Stout
• Serving: 22 ounce bottle
• ABV: 10.2%
• IBUs: 64
• Pour: A wonderful, opaque ink black with a thin mocha head that leaves intricate lacing.
• Nose: Loads of dark roasted coffee, dark chocolate, and cinnamon characterize the nose of this bad boy!   There are aromas of bitter dark chocolate, cinnamon sticks, cloves, dark roasted coffee, roasted malts, vanilla bean, and earthy hops.
• Taste: Like HammerFall... bold, Bold, BOLD!!  There are huge flavors of bakers dark chocolate, cinnamon sticks, and rich coffee beans along with hints of black licorice, very subtle vanilla bean and marshmallow. 
• Mouthfeel: Full-bodied with low carbonation, the mouthfeel is smooth and creamy with a very dry and spicy finish. 

Overall pairing: Anytime you go HammerFall you gotta go big (and I mean fuckin' BIG!) in terms of brew... thus the Noche De Los Muertos Imperial Stout from Aztec Brewing Company!  The bold and aggressive, yet wonderful drinkability of the Noche De Los Muertos Imperial Stout is a perfect for the power metal intensity that is HammerFall!!

Skål!!