Beer and Metal: Finding Signal Within Noise

When you say you can’t find flavor in the overwhelming bitterness or they say they can’t find music through screaming and guitars, to me that’s like saying you can’t see the forest for the trees.

Granted, beer is more than bitterness and Slayer is more than screaming and guitars, but bitterness or “noise” (for lack of a better word) are major parts of the experience.

It’s strange how a quality that you dislike sometimes makes you enjoy an experience more. For example, some people don’t like to hunt because they have to sit on a stand in the freezing cold, and most of the time nothing really happens. I say the cold and the silence that make it all worth going — it adds so much more to the experience when you actually see a deer.

Excellent point, Tim. I guess it’s also a matter of being able to find subtleties within different experiences, e.g. Slayer vs. Lamb of God, or Guiness vs. PBR. Those who aren’t adjusted only see the barrier.

Guniness and PBR are wildly different, but I see your point.

Also, PBR is some damned good stuff for what it costs. There’s a reason they call it “blue ribbon”.

Well, it’s the same with so many things. Music is one of those areas where it comes down to taste. But, I think it’s a little more than that. My older sister and I love metal, Slayer is in my top three favorite bands of all time, my younger sister doesn’t care for it.

People like other genres of music, other bands, that I can’t hear anything but noise. I have always wondered how one person can be spoken to by a form of art and another hears noise or sees just, well, junk.

There is nothing quite so satisfying as a cold Sam Adams and heavy metal. Bring the noise. Bring it.

If you ever get to the midwest some time you have to track down a summer ale called Oberon. Its produced by Bell’s in Kalamazoo. Its a great beer to have on a warm summer day while floating down a lazy river.

Jason