Monday, March 23, 2015

Black Tusk: Taste the Sin / Ravenous Brewing: Sour Red / BattleChasers: A Gathering of Heroes

Going for the gusto today. Big scarey sounds, big scary flavors and big scary monsters all in one blog.



Black Tusk - Taste the Sin
Relapse Records

I'm late to the party on Black Tusk (I'm well aware). Until being bombarded with them, Black Tusk was just another metal band in a thriving and very hyped up Georgia metal scene -- which includes the likes of Kylesa, Baroness and Mastodon. I'll be honest, the untimely passing of their bassist, Jonathan Athon, last November made them show up front and center in a lot of my daily Facebook activities which made them impossible for me to continue to pass over. So they were on my brain a bit when I walked into the Armageddon Shop in Providence the day after my birthday, (nothing eases a hangover better than shopping for metal records). I saw the copy of Taste the Sin on marble vinyl and decided that I'd give it a whirl. I'm glad I did, these guys are right in my wheelhouse without being something I've heard 1,000 times before. The semi-tonal shout that most of the lead vocals are delivered in reminds me a great deal of Kylesa. The backup vocals are even less tonal and the music is much more rough-and-tumble-stoner-by-way-of-thrash-metal but not too removed from their Georgia breatheran. There is a good amount of Black Flag and Misfits hardcore punk influence as well. The drummer is an absolute madman -- he's not overly flashy on the fills or anything but he is as steady as they come for something that can go from full speed ahead, to groove timing, to half time stomps and back to full speed ahead again without ever even thinking about it. It's not harsh enough to be sludge, not fuzzy enough to be stoner, too fast to be doom and too slow to be thrash but somehow just right. Just good 'ol head-bangin', beer-drinkin', ass-kickin' metal.  



Sour

I don't know a heck of a lot of details about this beer honestly. Ravenous is a small operation in Providence RI that my sister introduced me to on my birthday... and it turns out they make some pretty great beer. This one was a happy mistake for them. I don't know that they ever had it for public consumption -- but being that my sister is semi-famous over there they sold me a couple bottles. 

It's their Red Ale recipe that went sour on them and turned out awesome. Still has that great dark red color and still light bodied. You know you're dealing with a different animal at first smell though. There is a ton of black cherry in the nose of this beer -- a very pleasant smell but a dead giveaway of the sour flavors to come. The first sip hits you right in the jaw and starts you salivating. The oatmeal and mild roastiness of the Red Ale mellow the tartness of the beer (especially as it warms). As your pallet adjusts, the puckering finish turns into more of a lemon-lime soda flavor. You also get a great deal more of the herbal notes as you continue to drink. As it warms up it mellows and more caramel can be found creeping its way in. At this point the sourness just proves to  keep the beer bright rather than being a focal point. If a brewery makes a beer this good by mistake it should only make you more curious about how great what they do on purpose is.



Battle Chasers - A Gathering of Heroes
Cliffhanger/DC Comics
Writer/Artist - Joe Maduereia

Aaaahhh what could have been. Battle Chasers is the great unfinished work of Joe Maduereia. I'm a bit of a fantasy nerd -- used to play D&D; love the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit; listen to bands like Conan -- throw a bit of sciencefictiony of steam-punkish tech in there and I'm in 100%. Battle Chasers has all that and it's illustrated in a very 90's comic style, (ala Jim Lee), with a few dashes of anime thrown in for good measure. There is a lot of setup in these 6 or so issues. 

You meet the main character, a small girl who finds her fathers magical gauntlets and becomes super powerful, a disgraced knight who's along for the ride because of a debt he feels he owes the girl's father, an old wizard and his fugitive war golem, a bunch of super evil bad guys and a plethora of different creatures. Now this is both a blessing and a curse because the series never got finished. It's nice because throughout the 6 issues there is a ton to look at and find out but then once you've got everyone settled in there is no more book. Bummer! There are a limited amount of comics that deal in sort of traditional fantasy realms. This is not distopian NY or the distant future or past, this is a world that does not and has never existed and all of the things happening are real there. Unless you dig into some of the Thor stuff you really don't get the kind of hand to hand combat meets magic powers in mainstream comics that you do in novels. So even though it's a short and unfinished run, Battle Chasers is worth picking up and taking a look into. You will get everything you want out of a fantasy story and with impeccable art to boot.