April 3rd, 2015 - The Dark Truth About Foundations Of Burden

Good afternoon!  The Meista here today in a bit of a dark mood so I'm pairing "Foundations Of Burden" by Pallbearer and a Dark Truth Stout from Boulevard Brewing Company!   
 
Album Info:

• Artist: Pallbearer
• Title: "Foundations Of Burden"
• Recorded: Recorded and mixed at Type Foundry Studios, Portland, Oregon. (Mastered at Trakworx, San Francisco, California.)
• Release date: August 19th, 2014 (2nd full-length studio album by Pallbearer)
• Record company: Profound Lore Records
• Album cover art: Chimere Noire
• Personnel: Brett Campbell (lead vocals and guitar), Devin Holt (guitar and vocals on tracks 1 and 3), Mark Lierly (drums), and Joseph D. Rowland (bass guitar, piano/Rhodes/analog synthesizer, and vocals on tracks 1, 4, and 5)
• Musical style: Doom metal/stoner rock
• Sound: With influence from Black Sabbath, Candlemass, Electric Wizard, the Obsessed, and St. Vitus, Pallbearer's sound is slow, gloomy, sludgy, and melodic. The riffs are big and meaty while the vocals are harmonic and almost ethereal.
• Major themes: Sorrow, isolation, despair, triumph
• Tracks:

1. "Worlds Apart"
2. "Foundations"
3. "Watcher In The Dark"
4. "The Ghost I Used To Be"
5. "Ashes"
6. "Vanished"

    Brew Info:

• Brewery: Boulevard Brewing Company (Kansas City Missouri)
• Website: http://www.boulevard.com/
• Brew: Dark Truth Stout
• Style: Imperial Stout
• Serving: 12 ounce bottle
• ABV: 9.7%
• IBUs: 60
• Original gravity (Plato): 21
• Ingredients: Pale Malt, Amber 50, Cara 120, Cara 300, Chocolate, Roasted Barley, Chocolate Rye, Malted Rye, Malted Wheat, Honey Naked Oats, and Flaked Oats malts with Magnum, Zeus, Citra, and Perle hops, Belgian yeast, and brown sugar
  Pour: Opaque almost ink black with a thin, yet sustained mocha head that provides lots of spider web lacing.
• Nose: The nose of the Dark Truth Stout is rich, chocolately, and slightly fruity.  There are multi-layered aromas of bakers dark chocolate, dark roasted coffee, plum, and hints of vanilla bean.
• Taste: It has a bold and complex roasted malt character with lots of coffee, chocolate, and dark fruit elements.  There are notes of crème brulée, chocolate mouse, cocoa, walnut, fig, date, marshmallow, and more mellow herbal and spice flavors.
• Mouthfeel: Full-bodied with low carbonation, the Dark Truth Stout is thick and chunky with a moderate and slightly bitter bite from the hop finish.

Overall pairing: The deliberate, slow, and desolately complex sound of Pallbearer's "Foundations Of Burden" boldly mirrors the rich and darkened elements of the Dark Truth Stout.  The opening notes alone of the song "Vanished" seem to be of the same artisan composition of the stouts richer flavors!

Cheers and hails!