Sweet Josie pours with a very dark color and a small amount of tannish head. The ABV (6.1%) provides a small amount of bite, which provides an additional facet to a sweet, dark-fruit heavy set of flavors. The beer goes down tremendously easily, with great quaffs being de rigeur. As the beer continues to warm up, individuals will be provides with a moderation of the sweet elements and further highlighting…
Sympathy for the Lager is a refreshing take on the lager style, as Karbach has provided a considerable amount more hops than would normally be present in the run of the mill lager. This slight bit of bitterness ensures that individuals could use the beer as a palette cleanser, while having enough twists and turns to keep imbibers interested from beginning to end. The balance that exists between the…
P.F. Chang’s Review / Summit Mall, Akron, Ohio / https://www.pfchangs.com The ambiance of the restaurant is very inviting, with a set of distinct colors allowing for a look that will immediately draw individuals in. We were immediately brought to our table and had our drink orders taken. The soups and salad were ferried out in short order. The salad goes beyond typical restaurant fare, uniting typical lettuces with more esoteric…
Come Again opens up in a warm fashion, and slides into a cool and collected bit of funky, soulful rock. The shuffling beat of the track succeeds because of the smart instrumentation and insistent vocals encountered; the instrumental interlude keeps things fresh and inspires listeners to move onto Everybody Loves an event. Everybody Loves an event has Lyrd provide considerable amounts of narration, bringing listeners along for the ride. The…
I Just Want To Dance starts out with fiery horns; Greig’s inimitable vocals kick in shortly after. The track is able to take parts of the fifties, eighties, nineties, and today; Greig has frenetic energy through all three minutes of this cut; hints of the New Jack Swing era of R’n’B and the swinging lounge sounds of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin represent major influences to Greig on I Just…
Once you get past how instantly enjoyable Hayley Reardon’s new EP is, your hit by the stunning news that this singer/guitarist is only 17 years-old. Her voice and lyrics (with the exception of the cover of Taj Mahal’s “Fishin’ Blues,” all the songs here are penned by Reardon) are far stronger than anything you’d expect from a teenager and bring to mind everyone from Mary Chapin Carpenter to fellow Bostonian…
The titular track to Mr. Bones is led by a story that would hang with the most memorable of country and western stars of the fifties and sixties. Doug MacDonald keeps things utterly vibrant and infuses this timeless style with a bold style and an inimitable set of pipes. Honk Your Horn is a standout track on Mr. Bones, showcasing a delightful dynamic between the different elements of the…
Black Cannon is a Black IPA that pours with a very dark (nearly black) head. After further examination, one can faintly discern a reddish color poking out at the edges of the beer. There is a smallish tan head that dissipates shortly after the initial pour. An initial whiff of the Black Cannot yields floral and hoppy hints, while the bite associated with the hops will immediately hit imbibers. At…
Naughty or Nice is a solid contribution to the winter warmer format, with a good amount of sweetness and just enough spice notes to keep the beer varied throughout. The beer pours with a very dark color and a small amount of off-white head. The beer has a small amount of hop presence that provides further complexity to this effort. Naughty or Nice is able to have a lower ABV…
Six is your latest album. How did the release move from initial thought to finished effort? Initially, I wanted to develop a technical and progressive musical project that was still viable enough to resonate well with a large demographic of people. I love heavy metal music, and I want the public to understand this genres sophistication. With this in mind I am discovering formulas to make my original ideas more attainable…
A Fresh Bottle & A Brand New Day contains a number of distinct compositions that stand up to repeat listens. Norfolk County Jail is a track that touches upon a wide array of styles, moving effortless through punk, folk, and alt-country, as Sunshine Riot is able to immediately impress listeners. Natural Causes is a soft and sedate sound that gradually picks up steam. The guitar and bass dynamic that is…
The term “Norsecore” has been thrown around on the internet for a while and generally refers to bands that ripped off the second-wave Norwegian bands in every possible way from riffs to aesthetics to an extreme over-reliance on blast beats.
Calling to mind everyone from the B-52’s to the dB’s, Athens, GA-based Casper & The Cookies have always revealed in catchy, jerky synth pop that you can’t help but sing along to (quirky choruses be damned!). On Dingbats, their eighth release (their sixth or so with the band full band, The Cookies), the group is still uncompromisingly odd and just as fun as when they first surfaced. Their latest is…
The sheer amount of events that are active at any point during the Arnold Sports Festival is astonishing. Fencing, karate, and powerlifting events are putting competitors to their limits. The tens of thousands of attendees that make their way to the Greater Columbus Convention Center could take a step in any direction and be entertained, informed, amazed, or shocked. This is a world-renowned festival, an exaltation of fitness, and it will…
The Upslope IPA is a formidable experience. The beer pours with a small head and with a ruddy reddish-brown coloration. The initial nose of the Upslope IPA is very astringent, linking together citrus notes with hints of grass. Despite a 10% ABV, the beer goes down extraordinarily easy. There is a fairly substantial hop backbone that permeates the beer at all points. What the Upslope does is push the boundaries…
Hi-Rest pours with absolutely nothing in the way of head, along with a very bronze / gold body. The beer is effervescent, and will immediately yield a nice alcohol burn. While there are notes of hops present here, the 111 IBU level of the Hi-Res will not overwhelm the balanced nature of the effort. Hints of caramel, spice, lemon, and sweet malts can all be discerned within…
The typical words I would associate with black metal of all kinds do not seem to fit when I attempt to describe Dodsferd’s 9th studio album, ‘The parasitic survival of the human race’. A mix of sturdy riffing, clearly defined instrumentation and somehow structured vocal timings, make, truly gripping, exciting and sincerely different from anything I have heard before. Dodsferd have somehow managed to create a rebellious, ‘fuck you’ sounding…
At times, Powerstar Golf feels a lot like playing its real-world counterpart. Like real golf, Powerstar is filled with frustration, botched shots, curse words muttered under your breath as your shot bounces into the bunker for the hundredth time, and promises that you’ll never play again. But then you hit that one shot, that one perfect shot, and it makes all the frustration worth it. Powerstar Golf is an arcade-style…
Shit got real in season three of Games of Thrones. You know those annoying friends who have already read the books and would not shut up about “The Red Wedding” scene. Well, turns out they didn’t over sell this story line, for once. In the second to last episode in season three, just out on DVD, hell was definitely unleased at the wedding of Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey,…
Yes, there are bookshelves lined with bios about Bob Dylan – including a planned-three volume autobiography from the singer. But journalist Donald Brown approached American Troubadour, the latest Dylan book, in a completely original fashion, looking at the cultural landscape surrounding the release of each album. While many of the stories of Dylan’s life have been dissected ad nausea in just about every bit of medium imaginable, Brown’s approach is refreshing;…