October 22nd, 2019 - The Count, The King, And Abigail's Revenge

Good evenin' and hails evil-doers!  Your pal the Meista here tonight embracing the spooky Halloween season with a pairing of King Diamond's "Abigail II: The Revenge" and a Cerealiously Count Chocula from Black Bottle Brewery!  Hell yeah!  This pairing goes out to Sonia and Jason... thanks for the delicious beer my friends!  Cheers!

Album Info:

• Artist: King Diamond
• Title: "Abigail II: The Revenge"
• Recorded: June through September 2001 at Nomad Recording Studio in Dallas, Texas
  Release date: January 29th, 2002 (10th studio album by King Diamond)
• Record company: Metal Blade Records
• Production: King Diamond, Andy LaRocque, and Kol Marshall
• Album cover art: Travis Smith
• Personnel: Andy LaRocque (guitars), Hal Patino (bass), Kim Bendix Petersen aka King Diamond (lead and backing vocals, and keyboards), Matt Thompson (drums), and Mike Wead (guitars)
• Additional musicians: Alyssa Biesenberger (vocals on "Little One") and Kol Marshall (keyboards, strings, and harpsichord)
• Musical style: Heavy metal, progressive metal, theatrical gothic horror metal, and neoclassical metal
• Sound: The soaring and aggressive dual guitar work of LaRocque and Wead is otherworldly while the rhythm section of Patino and Thompson is a thunderous monster from the depths of the crypt.  And of course, the King!  His vocals are a haunting musical journey in themselves... wildly high, aggressively evil, and always amusing!
• Major themes: The album is a concept album and continues the ghost story from the 1987 album "Abigail".  Themes on the album include the occult, spirits, hauntings, evil, death, murder, lust, and revenge.
• Tracks: 

1. "Spare This Life"
2. "The Storm"
3. "Mansion In Sorrow"
4. "Miriam"
5. "Little One"
6. "Slippery Stairs"
7. "The Crypt"
8. "Broken Glass"
9. "More Than Pain"
10. "The Wheelchair"
11. "Spirits"
12. "Mommy"
13. "Sorry Dear"

Brew Info:

• Brewery: Black Bottle Brewery (Fort Collins, Colorado)
• Website: http://blackbottlebrewery.com/
• Brew: Cerealiously Count Chocula
• Style: Milk Stout
• Serving: 12 ounce bottle
• ABV: 6.0%
• IBUs: 40
• Ingredients: Milk stout made with General Mills Count Chocula cereal
• Pour: The Cerealiously Count Chocula pours an ink/onyx black with a creamy mocha head that slowly dissipates to a nice cap that leaves sticky, layered lacing.
• Nose: The nose is chocolatey, roasty, sweet, and malty.  There are big aromas of chocolate milk, crackery cocoa cereal, dark chocolate, fresh cream, dark roasted coffee, dark roasted malts, and light toffee.
• Taste: Like the nose, the taste of the Cerealiously Count Chocula is characterized by big sugary sweet chocolate cereal flavors and more traditional stout flavors.  There are notes of chocloate milk, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, graham cracker, sweet biscuit, dark roasted coffee, milk sugar, whipped cream, marshmallow, and toffee.
• Mouthfeel: Full-bodied with low carbonation, the mouthfeel of the Cerealiously Count Chocula is very creamy, velvety, and thick with a dry, sweet finish.

Overall pairing: How can you go wrong with a pairing of King Diamond's "Abigail II: The Revenge" album and a sweet and delicious Cerealiously Count Chocula Milk Stout?  It's like a pairing made in hell especially for you!  Those dark, sweet, rich, chococalty notes just go so well with both the subject matter and the complex and exceptional musical delivery!   I can't wait to see King Diamond next month!

Skål and hails!!