Band:	Alkaloid
Album:	The Malkuth Grimoire
Style:	Extreme progressive metal
Release date:	March 17, 2015
Guest review by:	qlacs

01. Carbon Phrases
02. From A Hadron Machinist
03. Cthulhu
04. Alter Magnitudes
05. Orgonism
06. Dyson Sphere - I. Mining The Oorth Cloud
07. Dyson Sphere - II. Assembly
08. Dyson Sphere - III. Kardashev II.1 The God Oven
09. Dyson Sphere - IV. Sol Omega
10. The Malkuth Grimoire
11. C-Value Enigma
12. Funeral For A Continent

I felt cringing inside the last time I tried this one and I couldn't remember why. Let's see now. On first impulse it feels like leftover Obscura material that they tried to make more interesting with nice clean passages. Or, for that matter, it feels like not much of anything at all. Is it the production? To me it seems a bit lifeless, stale. It doesn't quite kick me in the guts. The music is... often good. It seems to be dragging a lot; even if I got hooked, it was usually because of the guitar solo (maybe I'm listening to too much tech death?). It gets me expecting some epic counterpoint or breakdown, but none of these are really happening. Sometimes it succeeds in being chaotic, hoping to be interesting. Just like my review of it.

So then, what is this madness? Alkaloid bases a lot on atmosphere - but this record fails to adequately convey it... I think if the sound were better, then the experience of it would've been better. By the end of "Orgonism" my excitement arose for the first time, but I left let down once again because climax is just not their style. Next song is like they're imitating a bit of cabaret. Works for me, but may not work for you. "Assembly" is probably the most interesting song on the entire record; I had the feeling that it draws from all songs that came before. Oh my, maybe it does make me tingle inside? But again came some dragging... By the end of the "Dyson Spheres" the idea hit me that they may be more than an Obscura afterthought. Then came the title track, which very quickly cleared my mind of such suppositions. The clean vocals really help a great deal in the closer track. Just came to think I had not much to say about the first half of the record whatsoever.

(Un)fortunately for everyone, technicality without the feelz is but a one-night stand in reality. You enjoy while it lasts but you will not remember it the next day (or rather want to forget about it). When you see Yngwie pull his craziest licks it's still good and relevant because of his passion in both his playing and his sound. Here we had a 50/50 and my impression is that we lost the bet.

Maybe stick with a strong concept and a better sound engineer next time?