There is something about home brewed beer that just tastes better you know? Maybe it's the work and the waiting or maybe it's the fact that you can customize it to your specific tastes. Who knows? Who cares? Not me! Let's just enjoy the beer, shall we. This particular beer I chose simply because it's black and hearty, with the blood, guts and demonic sounds to come in this instalment I needed something to stand up to the other elements. This spiced porter was originally designed for Christmastime, the clove and mint flavors do give it that yule tide feel. The spices also give it a warming sort of feeling which makes it good all winter long. The roastyness of the dark malts is a great compliment to the spice. It's not as dark or as thick as a stout but still for sure a cold weather beer. Being slightly thinner and not huge on alcohol content makes it easy to enjoy a few of them while still keeping your wits about you. This will be key as we get deeper into this pairing
It will probably come as no suprise to most anyone reading this blog that I'm a pretty big Garth Ennis fan. Preacher was a stroke of genius, Hitman was pretty hillarious and his run with the Punisher was a match made in heaven. The Boys is a look at the underbelly of the super hero community, and a group of "genetically altered" individuals the government uses to keep them in line. Lets face it, most people don't belive in "with great power comes great responsibility". The more appropriate phrase is "absolute power corrupts absolutely". The boys are a motley crew of supe (short for super hero) hating individuals that break heads when the civilian body count gets too high or the property damage excedes what is warranted. Garth does this with his usual brand of dry wit and ultra violence. Like in pretty much all Garth's work, there are no good guys in The Boys. The characters are very real in this way, they all have their flaws, some greater than others and you have to make up your mind which you'll route for. The art is done by Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan). He handles all of the over the top blood and guts, the sex and debauchery completely fearlessly. His style is fairly clean and not overly stylized which makes it incredibly honest. The facial expressions and hand gestures he draws speak volumes unto themselves even without Garth's spot on scripting. This is a brilliant pairing of artist and writer doing a really fun book that asks just enough of the reader to keep you interested in the actual story, not just coming back for the gore.
Had enough blackness and destruction yet? No? good because you're going to have your hands full with Indian's From All Purity. This record is not for the faint of psyche or eardrums. I've seen the Indian described as "blackened doom misanthropes" in more than one publication. That is an understatement. This is hatred turned into sound. The plodding paces and the tortured screams reverberating from this album are down right oppressive. Indian is not the unstructured, let-the-note-hang-until-it-feeds-back-and-than-hit-another-one, style of drone doom that people have come to think of as heavy. From All Purity seems to be plotted down to the smallest detail to be the most terrifying piece of music you are likely to come across. The guitars don't have a crunch or fuzz to them necessarily as much as they just seem to weigh a ton and come falling down upon your ears. It's like a hammer hitting an anvil. There are pieces where the guitars also are more cutting, but smooth, there is nothing that I would call jagged about this music. It is either a rounded thud used to bludgeon or a knives edge used to cut. There are also layers of noise used to further unhinge your mind in this album. The electronic sounds work like a gnawing static, lemon juice in the wound that this album creates, it keeps you awake while further damage is done. Starting to think this album doesn't sound enjoyable? 99% of the population will not enjoy this album. You must enjoy it for it's calculated extremes, for it's shear audacity and it's animalistic passion. Records like these are my horror movies, I've always been better with sound than visual and this does to me the same thing that movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre do for horror movie fans. Enjoy.
