RSS Feed


ALKALOID
The Malkuth Grimoire‏

Self-released (2015)
Rating: 9.5/10

What a fantastic title The Malkuth Grimoire is, and it belongs to the debut album from German metallers Alkaloid.

The band was formed in 2014 after Hannes Grossmann (drums) parted ways with technical death metallers Obscura. Grossmann teamed up with vocalist / guitarist Morean (Dark Fortress) and they recruited bassist Linus Klausenitzer (Obscura, Noneuclid, Fallacy), and the guitar duo of Danny Tunker (Aborted, ex-God Dethroned) and Christian Münzner (Spawn of Possession, ex-Obscura).

Considering the background of the musicians involved here I was expecting a progressive and very complex death metal record, and that’s exactly what I got. The Malkuth Grimoire is a technically gifted, multi-layered and extremely clever opus that may not necessarily appeal to those who crave all out brutal intricate death metal battering rams.

From the start we’re treated to classy death metal growls and grunts and some pulverising rhythms, but as comes apparent very quickly with opener ‘Carbon Phrases’ this is a band who will no doubt perplex and bewilder with their talents. As a track it trickles, then quickly hammers before jerking and then jarring before offering up clearer, albeit more spectral, vocal sways which Cynic made their own.

This is very much prog death, and showcases the myriad of talents involved with leads worming their way devilishly through the cosmic churning and the drums one moment plodding nicely but the next shifting in schizophrenic patterns allowing the bass to meander and trickle gorgeously. Yep, it’s one of those albums that’s going to take a long, long time to get into, but then again that’s the joy of this sort of extreme metal which became all the rage and yet heavily criticized in the early 90s when the likes of Death, Atheist, Pestilence et al started to experiment. Sure, with this experimentation it sometimes means that heaviness suffers; the combo, however, are more than happy to mix expected crushing weight with joyous, albeit quizzical passages of unpredictability.

I’ve spun ‘Carbon Phrases’ around eight times now and I still forget what’s coming next, but while the meanderings may be deemed self-indulgent it’s clearly what Alkaloid does best, and the equally baffling nine-minute ‘From A Hadron Machinist’ is proof of that self-assurance and mind-boggling technicality often portrayed within the death metal realm. This time the leads are less fractured, the drums roll with fluency and there’s an initial surge of thrashing death metal of blast-beat percussion and hard jerking riffage, but you just know that at any minute some other alien force is going to come up. A mid-tempo plod still nods to the old school values of death metal, particularly the vocal bellows which emerge straight from the rusty chest of Morean. He barks, “Sincere – your organic thought machine, Reckons the plane obscene, I can feel the deafening silence, Illusive asylum arriving for real”, and while I have no clue as to what cosmic creations he’s on about I’m fully immersed in this riveting record which I’ve been trying to dismantle as if it’s some enigmatic puzzle box.

‘Cthulhu’ is without doubt the most memorable track on the opus initially, and it’s one of the heaviest offerings from the band. The deep, ominous vocals boom out as if H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu himself was warning us all of our forthcoming demise. This is backed with some truly suspenseful musical grinding and percussive suspense.

The dense structure of this monolith is riddled with some superb leads and a killer vocal display where the tone varies from a thunderous narration to a commanding gruff bellow. The trouble is, however, I could probably spend an age describing the fragments of each track, such is their jam-packed nature, but all I can really do is reassure you as to why you should be purchasing this rather unique portal to Alkaloid’s world.

For instance, the epic ‘Orgonism’ is sure to twist your innards and entangle the membranes that lace your matter, such is its bewildering complexity; the poetry of the lyrics is truly stunning as Morean takes us into an alien world injected by the stirring solos of Tunker and Münzner.

The four-part ‘Dyson Sphere’ is equally orgiastic in its instrumentation; all relatively short segments and yet labyrinthine when assembled together as Morean sneers that “The Ort cloud is demonic”; but we knew that already surely?! Even so, the tracks evolve like a weird Voivoid-esque psychic vacuum of skipping, drifting chords relaying back to us some of the more complex designs of 70s progressive rock as the outfit meddles with further extraterrestrial juxtapositions where riffs seem fluid and yet ever-changing in their galactic splendour.

I’m equally befuddled by the title track and its worming solo, but there’s also a supreme doom-death arrogance about the deeper regions of this track as Morean growls “All that’s needed, A universe of parts and particles, Waiting to be rearranged”, and I guess Alkaloid are the right men for the job as I’m hit by a frantic thrash outburst before being thrown into some computerised vortex of weird interstellar effects.

Although with twisted ears I approach the remaining two tracks – the breath-taking prog instrumental ‘C-Value Enigma’ and closing 12-minute ‘Funeral For A Continent’ – I daren’t throw myself back into this maze of multifaceted compositions until man has fully contacted alien life, because only then can I fully appreciate the often inhospitable climate Alkaloid has created.

To call this network of extremity technical death metal would be unfair to its creators. Instead, just rig yourself up to a computer grid and see what happens. I’m sure the outcome will be less soul churning than this truly staggering work of sophistication and celestial obscurity.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share