January 2nd, 2017 - Tormenting The Heretic's Vertebrae

God ettermiddag evil-doers!  The Meista here pairing "Vertebrae" by Norwegian black metal geniuses Enslaved and a Torment from Heretic Brewing Company!

Album Info:

• Artist: Enslaved
• Title: "Vertebrae"
• Recorded: 2008
  Release date: September 29th, 2008 (10th studio album by Enslaved)
• Record company: Nuclear Blast
• Production: Enslaved
• Album cover art: Truls Espedal
• Personnel: Cato Bekkevold (drums and percussion), Ivar Bjørnson (lead and rhythm guitars, art direction, and engineering), Arve Isdal (lead and rhythm guitars), Grutle Kjellson (bass, vocals, and art direction), and Herbrand Larsen (keyboards, synthesizers, vocals, and engineering)
• Musical style: Progressive metal/rock, Viking metal, black metal, elements of art rock and even a little jazz
• Sound: Incorporating multiple musical styles (most notably black metal and progressive rock) and complex songwriting, "Vertebrae" stands as another exceptional and profound sonic arrow in Enslaved's musical quiver. 
• Major themes: Of the album, Kjellson stated: "The title symbolizes the building stones in humanity, both physical and mentally, psychologically and biologically. Everything is closely tied together. You can say that the physics are the individual consciousness while the psychics are the outer consciousness. Micro/Macro-cosmos. Explained within mythological terms as the struggle (and also unity) between the Aesir and the giants."  He added that the songs are about human potential and human stupidity and greed: "They describe how extremely fragile we are when it comes to matters such as materialism, religion, propaganda etc. Humans are extremely weak when it comes to individual behavior, but we yet have a huge potential. This potential is often obscured somehow and the lyrics deals about different aspects of these matters, mine being the metaphorical/mythological while Ivar's the Psycho-surreal ones."
• Tracks:  

1. "Clouds"
2. "To The Coast"
3. "Ground"
4. "Vertebrae"
5. "New Dawn"
6. "Reflection"
7. "Center"
8. "The Watcher"

Brew Info:

• Brewery: Heretic Brewing Company (Fairfield, California)
• Website: http://hereticbrewing.com/
• Brew: Torment
• Style: Belgian-Style Quadruple Ale / Belgian Strong Dark Ale
• Serving: 25 ounce bottle
• ABV: 10.0%
• IBUs: 20
• Pour: Torment pours an opaque rich mahogany or chestnut brown with a frothy off-white head that dissipates to a thin ring with little lacing.
• Nose: The nose is full of sweet and malty aromas along with dark fruits.  There are aromas of rich toffee, bready malt, sugar plums, black cherries, raisins, prunes, light cocoa, and hints of rum.
• Taste:  The taste of the Torment is characterized by "caramel, malt, dark fruit, and Belgian candi sugar notes".  There are flavors of "caramel apples, candied pears, and chocolate covered oranges" along with plums, raisins, dates, pear juice, cider, and light booze.
• Mouthfeel: Medium to full-bodied with lower carbonation, the mouthfeel is creamy, very smooth, and warming with a dry, sweet finish.

Overall pairing: The sweet and fruity, yet dark and powerful flavors and aromas of the lovely Torment from Heretic Brewing is a perfect brew for the dark beauty and musical intensity and integrity of Enslaved's "Vertebrae"!  The bold, yet inviting dark fruit notes of the brew coupled with the sweet malts make for a great afternoon of sipping artisan brew... especially if the genius of Enslaved is playing the whole time!!

Skål!!  Hails!!