October 27th, 2024 - Death, Glory, or Oktoberfest!

 

Guten abend and hails!  Although Oktoberfest ended a couple of weeks ago, I'm pairing an Oktoberfest brew today.... 2024 Oktoberfest Festbier from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in collaboration with Brauerei Gutmann and rocking out to "Death Or Glory," the 5th kick-ass album from German metal monsters Running Wild!  This pairing goes out to my buddy Dustin Mitchell of Katagory V... prost brother!

Album Info:

• Artist: Running Wild
• Title: "Death Or Glory"
• Recorded: July through August 1989 at Studio M
• Release date: November 8th, 1989 (5th studio album by Running Wild)
• Record company: EMI / Noise
• Production: Rock 'n' Rolf (aka Rolf Kasparek) and Karl-U. Walterbach
• Album cover art: Sebastian Krüger
• Personnel: Jens Becker (bass), Iain Finlay (drums), Majk Moti (guitars), and Rock 'n' Rolf (vocals and guitars)
• Guest musician: Ladislav Křížek (backing vocals)
• Musical style: Heavy metal, power metal with elements of folk metal and speed metal
• Sound: Drawing from NWOBHM, speed metal, and German power metal, with "Death Or Glory", Running Wild delivers their heavy metal pièce de résistance!  The album is chalk full of wonderful riffage, soaring guitar solos, stampeding rhythms, and Rolf's powerful vocals!  Each track is wonderful crafted, executed, and produced.  This album is pure metal joy for your earholes!
• Major themes: Piracy, swashbuckling, adventure, shipwrecks, crime, violence, murder, evil, rebellion, history, legend, etc.
• Tracks: 

1. "Riding The Storm"
2. "Renegade"
3. "Evilution"
4. "Running Blood"
   
5. "Highland Glory (The Eternal Fight)"
6. "Marooned"
7. "Bad To The Bone"
8. "Tortuga Bay"
9. "Death Or Glory"
10. "Battle Of Waterloo"

Brew Info:

• Brewery: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company (Chico, California) and Brauerei Gutmann (Germany)
• Website: http://sierranevada.com/ and https://www.brauerei-gutmann.de/
• Brew: Oktoberfest Festbier
• Style: Märzen / Oktoberfest 
• Serving: 12 ounce bottle
• ABV: 6.0% 
• IBUs: 30
• Ingredients: Lager yeast, Two-row Pale, Pilsner, and Munich malts, with Hersbrucker, Loral, Saphir, and Spalter hops
• Pour: The Oktoberfest Festbier pours a clear, golden-amber with a bright white, 1-finger, frothy and firm head with good sustain and soapy lacing.
• Nose: The nose is fruity, malty, sweet, and spicy.  There are aromas of apple, toasted malt, sweet bread, light biscuit, light citrus, light mulling spices, and grassy hops. 
• Taste: The taste is festive and flavorful in the traditional German Märzen style.  There are notes of sweet apple, light toffee, sweet and crackery biscuit, lemon zest, black pepper, light honey, and slightly bitter and very grassy hops.
• Mouthfeel: Light-medium in body with moderate carbonation, the mouthfeel of the Oktoberfest Festbier is crisp and very smooth with a slightly bitter, somewhat dry finish.

Overall pairing: The traditional crisp, sweet, and punchy flavors of this year's Oktoberfest Festbier from the collaboration of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and Brauerei Gutmann are perfect for the hard-hitting, straight-forward heavy metal prowess and goodness that is the mighty Running Wild!  'Nuff said!

PROST and hails!!