February 24th, 2021 - Deathless And Pale

Good evening and hails headbangers and hop freaks!  The Meista here tonight pairing the kick-ass "Deathless" album by technical death metal monsters Revocation and a tasty and hoppy UTOG Pale Ale from the fine folks at UTOG Brewing Company!  Hell yeah!

Album Info:

• Artist: Revocation
• Title: "Deathless"
• Recorded: 2014 at Planet Z studios in Hadley, Massachusetts
• Release date: October 14th, 2014 (5th studio album by Revocation)
• Record company: Metal Blade Records
• Production: Christopher Harris (aka Zeuss)
• Album cover art: Tom Strom
• Personnel: Brett Bamberger (bass), David Davidson (guitars and vocals), Phil Dubois-Coyne (drums), and Dan Gargiulo (guitars and vocals)
• Musical style: Technical death metal with elements of thrash metal 
• Sound: Blending the more intricate and precise elements of technical death metal with the more raw and aggressive elements of thrash metal, Revocation's sound is characterized by an intricate interplay between guitars and bass with dissonant riffing, bass breaks, shredding guitar, and traditional death metal tempos along with galloping double-bass drumming.  Davidson also incorporates atonal and polyrhythmic jazz elements he learned while attending the prestigious Berklee College of Music.  The vocals are a blend of growls and screams.  Some of the vocals actual remind me a little of Swedish style death metal in the vein of Tomas "Tompa" Lindberg of At The Gates.
• Major themes: Death, darkness, insanity, violence, war, evil, etc.
• Notes: From Kerrang: "
• Tracks:   

1. "A Debt Owed To The Grave"
2. "Deathless"
3. "Labyrinth Of Eyes"
4. "Madness Opus"
5. "Scorched Earth Policy"
6. "The Blackest Reaches"
7. "The Fix"
8. "United In Helotry"
9. "Apex"
10. "Witch Trials"
11. "Sworn To The Black" (Morbid Angel cover)

Brew Info:

• Brewery: UTOG Brewing Company (Ogden, Utah)
• Website: https://www.utogbrewing.com/
• Brew: UTOG Pale Ale
• Style: American Pale Ale (APA)
• Serving: 12 ounce can
• ABV: 5.0%
• Pour: The UTOG Pale Ale pours a hazy caramel-gold amber with an off-white, 1+ finger, frothy head with good retention and lacing.
• Nose: The nose is citrusy, earthy, floral, dank, and slightly malty.  There are aromas of orange zest, grapefruit rind, wild flowers, wet pine needles, soft caramel, and bready malts.
• Taste: The taste of the UTOG Pale Ale follows the nose with delicious flavors of earthy pine, orange zest, pink grapefruit juice, tangerine, and soft caramel.
• Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied with moderate carbonation, the UTOG Pale Ale is crisp, refreshing, and smooth with a dry, slightly bitter finish.

Overall pairing: The UTOG Pale Ale is a very hop-forward, crushable, flavorful brew... fast becoming an all-time favorite of mine and perfect for sucking back along with the aggressive instensity of Revocation's "Deathless"!  Those punchy citrus flavors go great with aggressive vocal attack and amazing guitar riffs of Davidson and Gargiulo, while the malty backbone is perfect for the thunderous and galloping rhythms of Bamberger and Dubois-Coyne!

Cheers and hails!!