January 3rd, 2020 - Hands Of Wind And Chocolate Rapture

Hello and happy Friday headbangers and craft brew fans!  Your pal the Meista here today getting heavy and sludgy with a pairing of Windhand's self-titled debut album and a very rich, very chocolatey, and very tasty Big Bad Baptist Chocolate Rapture!

Album Info:

• Artist: Windhand
• Title: "Windhand"
• Recorded: June and July 2011 at the Dark Room in Richmond, Virginia
• Release date: February 28th, 2012 (1st studio album by Windhand)
• Record company: Forcefield Records
• Production: Garrett Morris
• Album cover art: Asechiah Bogdan
• Personnel: Asechiah Bogdan (guitars), Dorthia Cottrell (vocals), Nathan Hilbish (bass), Garrett Morris (guitars), and Ryan Wolfe (drums)
• Musical style: Doom metal, stoner rock with elements heavy psychedelic rock and grunge
• Sound: Combining heavily fuzzed guitars with thunderous drums and ethereal, enchanting vocals of Cottrell, the sound on "Windhand" is heavy as hell (invoking Black Sabbath and Sleep), and yet also very melodic and mesmerizing.  Fans of Soundgarden and Electric Wizard should really check this band out!
• Major themes: death, darkness, loss, tragedy, change, joy and sorrow, ups and downs, mourning, nature, etc. 
• Tracks:   

1. "Black Candles"
2. "Libusen"
3. "Heap Wolves"
4. "Summon The Moon"
5. "Winter Sun"
   

    Brew Info:

• Brewery: Epic Brewing Company (Denver, Colorado)
• Website: https://www.epicbrewing.com/
• Brew: Big Bad Baptist Chocolate Rapture
• Style: Imperial Stout
• Serving: 22 ounce bottle
• ABV: 10.5%
• Pour: The Big Bad Baptist Chocolate Rapture pours an opaque deep, dense dark chocolate brown (almost a coal black) with a firm and creamy 1-finger mocha head with great sustain and intricate and sticky lacing throughout.
• Nose: The nose is very aromatic... earthy, boozy, slightly sweet, and very chocolatey.  There are notes of semi-sweet dark chocolate, dark roasted coffee, roasted malts, oak, molasses, light licorice, tobacco, bourbon, a hint of soy sauce, and burnt toffee.
• Taste: Following the nose, the taste is characterized by rich and boozy bourbon, a hint of vanilla, creme brulee, baker's dark chocolate, milk chocolate, cocoa, molasses, toffee, hints of black cherry, fresh cream, roasted malt, and espresso.
• Mouthfeel: Full-bodied with very low carbonation, the mouthfeel of the Big Bad Baptist is thick, chewy, creamy, and velvety with a boozy, very dry, and slightly bitter finish.

Overall pairing: I paired the Big Bad Baptist Chocolate Rapture with Windhand's debut album for the simple reasons that they both are some heavy duty asskickers and those thick, muddy boozy flavors got great with the heavy churning metal power that is Windhand!  'Nuff said!

Hails!!