Blood of Gods is a wonderful magazine that explores the intersection of music and wine. Wine has moments of ecstasy, and like heavy metal, there are wild myths, strange practices, and feuding personalities that give it character. So, it's not really strange that metalheads turn into wine fans, just a twist of fate. This magazine revels in the divine inspiration that comes from wine and heavy metal. No matter what interests the reader brings they will come away having learned something about the interplay between wine and the greater world. While I’m not a total metalhead, I do enjoy it, and writing for Blood of Gods allows me to explore some of my favorite subjects and interview interesting people.
This is the first piece I wrote for the magazine and maybe one of my favorites. Shared in it’s entirety and accompanied by the original artwork from Bo Bradshaw and Dug Nation.
Every metalhead has had a lightbulb moment when they realize that music can be more than the bubblegum-soaked pop drivel spoon-fed by top-40 radio disk jockeys. For me, it was somewhere between catching GWAR on Jerry Springer eloquently defending creative expression in heavy metal and my first taste of divine madness after being moved by a riff so heavy that it felt like headbanging a monolith. Whatever prompts the realization that you can reject the corporate butt-rock for something sludgy and feral should be celebrated and memorialized. Your moment could be the stepping stone for others.
Wine has similar moments of ecstasy, and like heavy metal, there are wild myths, strange practices, and feuding personalities that give it character. So, it's not really strange that metalheads turn into wine fans, just a twist of fate. Like great albums, wine is crafted, there are foundational myths that add color to the experience, and it can get you brutally inebriated.
The pages of mythology and history are splattered with the blood of gods and mortals that shaped the world, inventing wine as they bled into the primordial dirt. This magazine revels in the divine inspiration that comes from wine and heavy metal, so I've assembled a collection of metal moments in wine myth, history, and winemaking practice to give those on the fence (and the already-converted) even more reasons to enjoy imbibing.
The right combination of music, story, and wine can make the most skeptical pop-listening, craft beer-guzzling normie appreciate the blood of the gods. Drink in the sordid details with some of my favorite wine and music pairings that match every moment.
The Birth Of Dionysus - God of Wine and Ritual Madness
Before inventing wine, the god of wine had to be born. And while many of the pagan gods sprung from the feet of broken bodies and scattered titanic gore, the birth of Dionysus (the god of the grape harvest, wine, and ritual madness) was an especially metal moment in mythology.
His mother was the mortal Semele, a Phonecian princess of renowned beauty and daughter of one of the first human heroes, while his father was Zeus, the sky-father, the god of lightning, and ruler of all the Greek gods on Mount Olympus. When Zeus's wife, Hera, discovered the affair, she was enraged. Disguised, she caused Semele to doubt Zeus's divinity and demand that he prove his godhood by revealing his true splendor. Zeus reluctantly agreed, sealing Semele's fate.
In his true form, Zeus radiated power, and Semele began to bleed from the ears and eyes. When Zeus produced his thunderbolts, she was torn in two down the middle, exposing the still-developing Dionysus. To save his unborn son, Zeus cut open a hole in his thigh, gently placing the fetus and sewing him in until he was mature enough to survive birth.
Pairings for the Birth of Dionysus:
Wine: Domaine Hauvette Alpilles Blanc "Jaspe" is a 100% Roussanne wine from southern France that tastes like a thunderstorm on a seaside farm. It's a celebration that unto us the god of wine has come, and it will evoke a lament once the bottle is empty.
Music: "It Took the Night to Believe" by Sunn O))) - A sludgy, doom-filled, drone metal soundtrack for the dark events surrounding Dionysus's twin births.
The Invention of Wine
The satyr Ampelos probably shouldn't have bragged that he was better at riding animals than the goddess Selene (famous for driving the chariot of the moon across the sky). When she heard of his boasts, she was enraged. In her anger, she bewitched the bull Ampelos was riding, which threw him into the air and skewered him through the heart. Being gored is a brutal way to go. Being gored by a raging bull that was bewitched is an especially brutal way to go.
But Ampelos and Dionysus were close, and as his broken body lay splayed in the dirt, it was transformed into grapevines. The blood leaking out of his gaping chest wound changed hue ever-so-slightly and became the first vintage of wine. Dionysus mourned and then drank deeply of his friend before sharing this discovery with god and mortal alike. Maybe this will give you something new to think about when you drink something a sommelier has described as "blood red."
Pairing for the Invention of Wine:
Wine: Paolo Bea's Sagrantino Di Montefalco Pagliaro is absolutely savage. The unrelenting tannins, the spice, the tobacco, the searing acid, and the plush fruit harmonize into a brutal melody fit for the gods—a worthwhile tribute to the first vintage and the fallen.
Music: "Hesperus" by Windhand - The sludgy guitar and slow tempo drive home the emotional heft of the lyrics that are mourning as Dionysus mourned:
“Grower of grief's infernal flower/
I am the love, that always devours.
Drink from the devilish fountain/
Fade in my memory.”
Bacchanalia
Not all metal is doom and gloom, and not all wine moments are about murder and death; sometimes, there's drunken debauchery and licentiousness too. In Ancient Rome, Dionysus went by another name: Bacchus, and Bacchus became the center of massive cults dedicated to divine madness.
This state of madness changed from cult to cult but wasn't just about getting fucked up. Bacchanalia are probably most famous for the orgiastic aspects, but they were way wilder than just tame group sex. At some bacchanalia, animals were torn in half and eaten raw. This reenactment of Bacchus's birth was a means to become more enthusiastic. The real meaning of enthusiasm is to have one's body taken over by divine madness. Bacchus demanded that his followers cede control to his will. I know that metal fans can relate to the feeling. Sometimes when the music is playing, and the riffs are heavy, the spirit speaks, and you can't help but headbang enthusiastically with the music that now controls you.
Pairing for Bacchanalia:
Wine: Agrapart & Fils "Venus" Blanc de Blanc Brut Nature Millesime is a vintage Champagne from a single vineyard in Avize. Venus is the name of the horse that plows the field. It's textured, with an unbelievable depth. A champagne that moved me to enthusiasm.
Music: "Infest the Rat's Nest" by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - The whole record is heavy, thrashy and full of blast beats, guitarmonies, and gang-vocal filled choruses that portend our incoming destruction at the hands of wealthy interlopers. The lyrics from the song "Superbug" could just as easily be about Covid-19 as about Bacchus and his divine madness:
"Faceless and ageless/
It's simply outrageous
Never ever, ever stops/
And never ever gives a fuck."
Black Masses and Theophagy (the eating of a god)
There's nothing more metal than a Black Mass. Since Ozzy's early invocation of "Generals gathered in their masses/just like witches at Black Masses," the Black Mass and the occult have been inextricably linked with Heavy Metal culture. A Black Mass takes the elements that Christians believe to be holy and inverts them using profane simulacra. There's no correct way to hold a Black Mass. I'd recommend having lots of wine as sometimes it's about getting drunk off the wine (the blood of a god). But some would say it's necessary to sacrifice an animal and have sex on the altar. A Black Mass is really a Heavy Metal Choose-Your-Own-Adventure of sorts.
Germanic and Roman pagans criticized the Christians by calling them cannibals because of their obsessed fixation with torture devices and the belief that they were literally eating the body and drinking the blood of their god. So the components of a regular mass are shockingly metal as well. Wicked.
Pairing for Black Masses and Theophagy:
Wine: David Duband Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru 'Les Proces" is a blood-red wine with a meaty ferocity and savory character. With all the talk about drinking blood, this is a wine that will surprise and delight. Just enough mineral iron to make you think of the last time you bit your lip a little too hard.
Music: "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath - This is the song that launched heavy music into the firmament and forever linked it with the occult. Drink up and turn it up.
Winemaking with Blood and Guts
Winemaking isn't clean. It can take mountains of shit to fertilize the grapes and animal guts to clean the wine's impurities before bottling. Winemakers often use bits of fish guts, dried ox's blood, bone marrow, or the exoskeletons of dead sea creatures to clean out the impurities in a wine before bottling. This should be all the reason you need to put down the PBR tall boy for a wine glass. Just drinking wine is heavy.
Pairing for Blood and Guts:
Wine: Bénédicte et Stéphane Tissot Rose Massale Chardonnay is a wine that tastes fully alive. The winemakers farm biodynamically, so you know some blood and guts went into making the wine. It's savory and sweet and floral all at once. It's like tangerines and aniseed have been blended with a bit of pepper.
Music: "Blood and Thunder" by Mastodon - An easy choice when we are already talking about fish guts. The call to: "Split your lungs with blood and thunder/ when you see the white whale" could just as easily be about crafting the perfect white wine as it could be about hunting Moby Dick.
The Bones of the Dead
In metal (and in these examples), dying is no reason to stop drinking wine. The dead Vikings are forever mead-wasted in the halls of Valhalla, but in remote parts of modern Greece, they still drink from the skulls of their ancestors. A year after death, the body is exhumed, and the bones are washed in wine. The skull is washed with particular caution before it's turned upside down and filled with the local red wine. Family members drink in turn to break any curses that still linger on the dead. There, wine is at the heart of death, which in a lot of ways is my most metal dream of death. Wash my bones in wine so that I can be spirited to the waiting arms of Dionysus.
Pairing for the Bones of the Dead:
Wine: Weingut Sybille Kuntz Riesling Auslese "Feinharb" is the perfect wine to end with. Its nose is massive, like the heaviest riff. A wine for eternity. .
Music: "Dream House" by Deafheaven - The sheer volume and sonic space that Deafheaven creates in this song is epic. The shoegazey guitar tones, post-rock song structure, blast beats, and screamed vocals coalesce into something greater, and make it the perfect blackgaze accompaniment to thinking about leaving the party, as it were. "I'm dying/ Is it blissful?/ It's like a dream/ I want to dream" is the way I'd like to go. Wash my bones and turn up the volume.
