01. Qliphosis 02. The Cambrian Explosion 03. Clusterfuck 04. Shades Of Shub-Niggurath 05. A Fool's Desire 06. The Fungi From Yuggoth 07. The Black Siren 08. Numen 09. Recursion 10. The Folding 11. Alpha Aur
There's something to be said for unbridled aggression as a form of expression (bonky caveman riffs is people, too), but very often the results are more interesting when death metal's technical extremes manifest in a less inhospitable form. For Alkaloid, it's a weird, groaning slither, a cosmic-cool crunch of science fiction made sound.
I watched an interview with Hannes a couple months back where he said they were getting a little jazzier for this one. Definitely one of my most anticipated albums in some time.
Loooooooove the second single. I lov ethat they're getting weirder with the compositions. We got now full on flamenco bits and the short choir kinda segment is also lovely. Doesn't overstay it's welcome, short and nice
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You are the hammer, I am the nail
building a house in the fire on the hill
I've been spinning this nonstop since yesterday and they sure don't disappoint. This is more of the same that made their two previous albums some of my all time favourites, Hannes Grossmann one of my favourite drummers and Christian Münzner one of my favourite guitarists. And fascinating enough you don't even notice the loss of Danny Tunker's guitar. Although being 70 minutes long it doesn't feel that long. You really get sucked in and a full playthrough really flies by. Initial impressions makes this an easy 9 but with time this is one of those albums that might be upgraded to an actual masterpiece, just like The Malkuth Grimoire and Liquid Anatomy.
The cover-art reminds me of Obscura, which I guess is no surprise, and kinda makes sense, because musically it's not far off from them in parts tbf. The structure as a whole takes some getting into, mainly due to it's length and complexity, but it's a pretty solid release regardless. There's some occasional great moments here and there, but the last track in particular stands out the most for me.
This is a weird record. I like it a lot after a few spins (which is also what I expected). It's both their most anthemic record (lots of big choruses), but at the same time has some of their busiest and weirdest songs (like "The Cambrian Explosion"), but then overall it feels less varied than the first 2? The first one had sort of a divide you could feel between the Grossmann and the Morean compositions, the second one too while also having songs like that one's title track that stick out a ton. Here every song kind of sounds similar in approach.
Needs more spins
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You are the hammer, I am the nail
building a house in the fire on the hill
Really love it, but at this stage, I kinda evolved into an Alkaloid fanboy. Cool to hear them getting a bit weirder indeed, makes it quite a fun listen, despite its length.
I didn't connect with this one so much on first listen. I can definitely appreciate the skills put in it, and the moments I did listen to it activelly, in an analytical way, it was actually a lot of fun. But the overall result doesn't create much emotions in me in the end, which is what I look for the most in such music.
I didn't connect with this one so much on first listen. I can definitely appreciate the skills put in it, and the moments I did listen to it activelly, in an analytical way, it was actually a lot of fun. But the overall result doesn't create much emotions in me in the end, which is what I look for the most in such music.
This is undoubtedly a solid record - and the musicianship is obviously excellent - but agree, it didn't do much for me as a whole album.