November 2nd, 2018 - Blind Pigs For An Electric Messiah

Hey there rockers and craft brew freaks!  Happy Friday and happy The Meista here pairing High On Fire's latest kickass album, "Electric Messiah" with a Blind Pig from Russian River Brewing Company!  Hell yeah!  This pairing goes out to my friends Doug and Carmen who brought me this lovely beer!  Cheers guys!!

Album Info:

• Artist: High On Fire
• Title: "Electric Messiah"
• Recorded: 2017 through 2018 at GodCity, Studio B, and Earhammer
• Release date: October 9th, 2018 (8th studio album by High On Fire)
• Record company: Entertainment One Music
• Production: Kurt Ballou
• Album cover art: Skinner
• Personnel: Des Kensel (drums and backing vocals), Jeff Matz (bass and backing vocals), and Matt Pike (guitars and lead and backing vocals)
• Additional musicians: Alyssa Maucere (backing vocals) and Bryan Sours (backing vocals)
• Musical style: Heavy metal, doom/stoner metal with elements of thrash metal and metalcore
• Sound: Incredibly powerful, gripping, wonderfully angry, high-energy, and brutal, this is classic High On Fire!  From the opening note to the final, this album is high-octane, explosive, blast beat goodness!  Tribalistic rhythms wonderful agitate a sonic attack of guitars and angry vocals!
• Major themes: Death, dread, isolation, mythology, violence, religion, etc.  Of the album, Pike described it as "one stream of High On Fire consciousness".
• Notes: The album's title track (and the album as a whole) is an homage to the late, great Lemmy, legendary Motörhead frontman.
• Tracks:   

1. "Spewn From The Earth"
2. "Steps of the Ziggurat / House of Enlil"
3. "Electric Messiah"
4. "Sanctioned Annihilation"
5. "The Pallid Mask"
6. "God Of The Godless"
7. "Freebooter"
8. "The Witch And The Christ"
9. "Drowning Dog"

Brew Info:

• Brewery: Russian River Company (Santa Rosa, California)
• Website: http://russianriverbrewing.com/
• Brew: Blind Pig IPA
• Style: American India Pale Ale (IPA)
• Serving: 16 ounce bottle
• ABV: 6.25%
• Pour: The Blind Pig pours a hazy, golden-orange with a soapy, white head that leaves thin and wispy lacing.
• Nose: The nose is sweet, fruity, and bitter.  There are aromas of Lemon Drop candy, grapefruit rind, tangerine, pineapple, mango, pine resin, and a touch of caramel.
• Taste: Very hoppy with medium bitterness, the Blind Pig is a world-class IPA that perfectly blends hoppy bitterness and sweet malts.  Like the nose, there are big citrus and pine flavors blended with barley and caramel malt .  There are notes of pine, pink grapefruit juice, .
• Mouthfeel: Medium to full-bodied with moderate carbonation and medium bitterness, the mouthfeel is crisp, refreshing, and dry, with lingering bitter grapefruit notes.

Overall pairing: The Russian River Blind Pig is hands down one of my all time favorite IPAs!  Its bright, complex, punchy, and hop-forward flavors make it the perfect brew to enjoy whilst raising your horns and banging your head wildly to the fervor, energy, and depth of High On Fire's brilliant new album, "Electric Messiah"!

    

Cheers... rock on!!