August 13th, 2016 - Your Better Czech Your Head 'Cause I Think You're Spreading The Disease

Good evening my friends!  How 'bout some classics tonight?  The Meista here with another rockin' pairing for you... Czech Your Head Czech-Style Pilsener from Proper Brewing Company and Anthrax's "Spreading The Disease"!!  Hell yeah!!

Album Info:

• Artist: Anthrax
• Title: "Spreading The Disease"
• Recorded: 1985 at Pyramid Sound Studios in Ithaca, New York
  Release date: October 30th, 1985 (2nd album by Anthrax)
• Record company: Megaforce / Island Records
• Production: Carl Canedy, Anthrax, and Jon Zazula
• Album cover art: David Heffernan
• Personnel: Joey Belladonna (lead vocals), Frank Bello (bass and backing vocals), Charlie Benante (drums), Scott Ian (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), and Dan Spitz (lead guitar and backing vocals)
• Musical style: Thrash metal, speed metal
• Sound: Powerfully rhythmic, fast as hell, and in-your-face, this is quintessential and defining thrash metal! 
• Major themes: Power, aggression, violence, insanity, mythology and folklore, good and evil, life and death, etc.
• Tracks:   

1. "A.I.R."
2. "Lone Justice"
3. "Madhouse"
4. "S.S.C./Stand Or Fall"
5. "The Enemy"
6. "Aftershock"
7. "Armed And Dangerous"
8. "Medusa"
9. "Gung-ho"

Brew Info:

• Brewery: Proper Brewing Company (Salt Lake City, Utah)
• Website: http://www.properbrewingco.com/ 
• Brew: Czech Your Head Czech-Style Pilsener
• Style: Bohemian Pilsener
• Serving: 22 ounce bottle
• ABV: 5.6%
• IBUs:42
• Ingredients: Czech and German malts and Saaz hops with spices
• Pour: It pours a clear pear-gold with lots of effervescence and a giant, billowy white head with great sustain and patchy lacing. 
• Nose: The nose of the Czech Your Head is biscuity, grassy, grainy, and slightly fruity.  There are aromas of fresh sourdough bread, crackery biscuit, June grass, milkweed, spices, and hints of apple or pear.
• Taste: Like the nose, the taste is crackery, grassy, hoppy, spicy, and slightly fruity. 
• Mouthfeel: Light to medium-bodied and well-carbonated, mouthfeel of the Czech Your Head is smooth, crisp, and refreshing with a clean and slightly dry finish.

Overall pairing: Although I usually like to pair thrash metal with bitter IPAs, the crisp, straight-ahead classic biscuity/grassy flavor and aroma of Proper's wonderful Czech Your Head Czech-Style Pilsener just seemed perfect for the metal brilliance of Anthrax's classic masterpiece "Spreading The Disease"!  The easy drinkability, yet spicy and hoppy punch of the brew makes for a perfect companion to the fiery, lightning fast tracks, while the biscuity malts work really well with Belladonna's richly textured and full vocals!

Cheers and hails!!  Raise those pints and raise those horns to the might of Anthrax and Proper Brewing!!