March 30th, 2017 - Doppel Dose Of The Metal Heart

Guten abend and hails!  The Meista here tonight pairing "Metal Heart" by the mighty German metal band Accept and a Bavarian-Styled Doppel Weizen from Lagunitas Brewing Company!


Album Info:

• Artist: Accept
• Title: "Metal Heart"
• Recorded: October through December 1984 at Dierks Studios in Stommeln, Cologne, Germany
• Release date: March 4th, 1985 (6th studio album by Accept)
• Record company: Portrait Records
• Production: Dieter Dierks
• Album cover art: Dirksen and Sohn Modellwerkstâtten, Stahl, Werbefotografie
• Personnel: Peter Baltes (bass, Moog Taurus, and backing vocals), Udo Dirkschneider (lead and backing vocals), Jörg Fischer (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), Wolf Hoffmann (lead and rhythm guitars, acoustic guitar, sitar, and backing vocals), and Stefan Kaufmann (drums, percussion, and backing vocals)
• Musical style: Heavy metal, hard rock, power metal
• Sound: With more accessible songwriting and an emphasis on hooks and melodies, "Metal Heart" is a collection of richly textured rocking and roll power and aggression. It contains several of their classic songs such as title track "Metal Heart," "Midnight Mover," and the fast-paced "Living for Tonite," along with the kick-ass and jazzy "Teach Us To Survive." There is no "filler" on this album either... each track is a metal gem!  The guitar work of Hoffmann alone is worth the album's weight in gold!  And how can you not love Udo?!  Just listen to "Wrong Is Right" and you will know exactly what I mean!  This is German metal at its best!!
• Major themes:  Guitarist Wolf Hoffmann once explained the concept behind the album: "We had read an article that someone was working on an artificial heart and that one day everybody is going to have a computerized heart. It talked, in general terms, about how more and more of humanity gets sucked out of the daily life and more and more replaced by machine. It's not a new thing now, but then it was new. Humans versus machine, was the general vibe of the record."
• Tracks:   

1. "Metal Heart"
2. "Midnight Mover"
3. "Up To The Limit"
4. "Wrong Is Right"
5. "Screaming For A Love-Bite"
6. "Too High To Get It Right"
7. "Dogs On Leads"
8. "Teach Us To Survive"
9. "Living For Tonite"
10. "Bound To Fail"

Brew Info:

• Brewery: Lagunitas Brewing Company (Petaluma, California)
• Website: https://lagunitas.com/
• Brew: Bavarian-Styled Doppel Weizen
• Style: Weizenbock 
• Serving: 22 ounce bottle
• ABV: 8.7%
• IBUs: 47
• Pour: The Bavarian-Styled Doppel Weizen pours a hazy, bright orange-amber with a frothy, bright white, 2-finger head with good retention and lots of sticky lacing.
• Nose: The nose is characterized by bready, hoppy, sweet, and spicy aromas.  There are notes of soft banana, grapefruit rind, lemon zest, biscuity malt, spicy herbs, floral hops, and caramel.
• Taste: The taste is sweet with bold hop flavors and spices.  There are notes of grapefruit, tangerine, soft banana, light ginger, nutmeg, sweet and toasted biscuit, and light toffee and booziness.
• Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied with moderate carbonation, the mouthfeel of the Bavarian-Styled Doppel Weizen is slick, yet crisp with a dry, slightly bitter finish.

Overall pairing: The bold, yet very drinkable German-inspired flavors of Lagunitas' Bavarian-Styled Doppel Weizen is perfect for the balls-out, straight-forward rockin' prowess of the wunderbar "Metal Heart" by Accept!!  Those punchy and bitter hop notes are great for Udo's aggressive vocals while the sweet notes compliment Hoffmann's brilliant guitar work!

Prost and hails!!