Hop-Heavy: Stone Brewing and Avenged Sevenfold
Bliss in a can.
Rocket your mind to oblivion.
Brewery: STONE Brewing
Beer: “Imperial Star Fawker Hazy IPA (9% alc.vol)
Artist: Avenged Sevenfold
Album: The Stage (2016)
There exists no time like the present to allow ourselves to be drawn together by the amber drenched ales and sun-soaked drafts of STONE Brewing’s “Imperial Star Fawker” Hazy IPA. This is a stellar drink to say the least, and such a formidable ale deserves a proper setting. Avenged Sevenfold’s 2016 release, The Stage, is just the kind of ambience that we need in order to properly light this rocket.
Please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all time. A word of caution: it is far too easy to go overboard with this particular IPA — mistakes were made, and the better part of my evening was lost to the cosmic haze that pushed this well-worn writer within sight of the event horizon. Needless to say, you may find your craft ejecting its core as a result of over-indulgence, so unless you feel like trading for a new one at the next star gate, I suggest you heed my warning.
STONE Brewing has never failed to disappoint me when I feel the need to take a trip to the cosmos but this time, their “Imperial Star Fawker” delivers in spades. Commanding a colossal 9% alc/vol., this hazy IPA is a metal heads dream come true.
As we pour our golden elixir into a frosted glass the drone of feedback and orchestral synthesizers coalesce, filling the room with brief calm before a guitar riff reverberates against the sullen silence. Drums fall in behind blistering guitars and earth-shattering bass before sheering vocals bring it all to life.
Bittersweet citrus notes compliment this album incredibly well. Every swig demands to be followed by another, much like The Stage, where each song drifts into the next as naturally as they could possibly be. The changes in their tempo and their command of the volume that controls the overall intensity is so well honed that it is no wonder that AX7 is a dominant force of heavy metal.
We are special my fellow Mediums; we are fortunate — never in history have human beings been able to enjoy spirits with such high alcohol content. Just as music owes its inception to Pythagoras, alcohol owes its preservation to Benedictine monks of the middle-ages. Now, thanks to modern yeasts, we have the strength in alcohol content that so many of us have come to appreciate.
The metal sound has evolved alongside the evolution of technology and tube-powered amplifiers in a similar fashion. My dear inebriated metal heads, indulging in such potent spirits whilst listening to heavy metal is the pinnacle of what these two disciplines have evolved to accomplish, each enhancing the other in a cosmic ballet without choreography, blissfully confined within our minds and stomachs.
Every sip of “Imperial Star Fawker” and each palm muted note grabs hold of your brain stem in all the right ways. Particularly, the bitter finish that seems to follow close behind citrus flavors of what seems like a dull cantaloupe and apricot, a true brew. It is so delightfully complex at first, but this intricate web begins to dissipate as you finish your beer and move gleefully towards the second cheering aloud with the explosivity of tracks like “Sunny Disposition”, “God Damn”, and “Creating God”.
The track titles are not exactly colorful, but they are simple and convey a straight forward tone that sets a definable foundation for the fiber in the fabric of each track. The complexities of the flavors in” Imperial Star Fawker” are evenly paired with the chaotic tempos of the first half of the album. Once seconds come a callin, that snobby beer-tasting palate gives way to an established flavor profile that you hope never fades.
The Stage has one thing that a cosmic IPA absolutely needs in order to properly hold a place amongst the stars, Neil DeGrasse Tyson. The renown astrophysicist reads an excerpt from Carl Sagan’s 1994 book, Pale Blue Dot. The track, appropriately titled “Exist”, comes to us against the backdrop of ferocious heavy metal chords and hard-hitting rhythms and even though it has all the makings for extraordinary pretention, I assure you it is not. The entire song is an ode to the big bang, the creation of the universe as we know it and its explosive arrival on the cosmic stage. Much like STONE Brewing’s Imperial Star Fawker, the far reaches of space are within our grasp under the appropriate conditions and with the right music. Carl Sagan said, “The day we cease exploration of the cosmos is the day we threaten the continuance of our species…”, and I could not agree more, save for the fact that, alongside, and of equal importance, resides our uniquely human love of music and our desire to change our perception of reality in order to better suit our assessment of it.
From Left to Right: Johnny Christ (Bass), Brooks Wackerman (Drums), M. Shadows (Vocals), Synyster Gates (Guitar), and Zacky Vengeance (Guitar) Photo Credit: Anne Erickson