Hard tunes and cold brews are teaming up at the Decibel Metal & Beer Fest, a weekend event that will include headbanging music and beer with metal-worthy names like Warborn, Cosmic Crypt and Dark Lord.
The Dec. 1-2 festival at the Wiltern will pair more than a dozen beer-loving metal bands, including headlining acts Testament and Triptykon, with 19 metal-loving breweries, including local spots such as Gardena’s Phantom Carriage and Inglewood’s Three Weavers.
“It’s metal, beer, all of it,” said Alex Yarde, marketing director with Decibel Metal magazine, the organizers of the event.
Thrash metal icons Testament will headline the beer fest on Dec. 1 while Swiss gothic metal band Triptykon headlines the next night.
Also on hand Saturday will be metal legend Dave Mustaine who will not be performing but instead pouring his own Megadeth beer called À Tout Le Monde, a Belgian style saison ale he created with the Canada-based Unibroue brewery.
Mustaine isn’t the only metal musician who has his own beer as several of the bands performing at the festival will bring their own brews as well.
Death metal band the Black Dahlia Murder, who perform on Saturday, will bring their Warborn beer, a rye pale ale they created in collaboration with the Pennsylvania-based Weyerbacher brewery.
Another band bringing its own beer is doom metal band Khemmis, whose drummer Zach Coleman is the head brewer at the Denver based Trve Brewing where he created the Cosmic Crypt.
“It’s one of my favorite beers,” Yarde said. “It’s a farmhouse pale ale, real easy drinking,” she added.
Other metal-worthy beers at the festival include the Dark Lord by Indiana-based brewery Three Floyds, which the company describes as “A demonic Russian style imperial stout.”
Local spots like Three Weavers also got into the metal spirit and will be pouring an imperial india pale ale called Blood Junkie and a black IPA called Tooth & Claw.
If You Go:
When: Doors open at 4 p.m. Dec.1-2
Where: The Wiltern, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles
Tickets: $50-$175
Information: decibelmagazine.com