Alkaloid is a German progressive death metal band that was spanned and formed from the other German prog bands like Obscura and Necrophagist. Otherwise a supergroup. This happens to be their debut album and is shined upon for it being a great first impression, but then again, this comes from musicians that know perfectly well what they're doing.
The Malkuth Grimoire was released this year and has since been heavily regarded by many to be among the best of the year even rivaling the likes of Enslaved, Steven Wilson, and Blind Guardian. Yeah, if the "baby" can compete with the long-running grandfathers, you know you're a great album. You have to give this an A for effort because of that. While you don't have many long tracks, you are greeted with twists and turns and madness everywhere. There is not one part it seems that sounds anything like the rest. You get total chaos and oodles if solos galore as well. Now some may say that they are overstaying their welcome, and I'd have to agree with them to some extent. I even read one comment that said that they seem to have an identity crisis which does make sense because of the fact that there are people from different bands in Alkaloid here, I don't see that issue all to much. While you may say this sounds like the death metal version of Dream Theater, you can surely find more than chaos and shedding solos like in Dream Theater. The track names are also pretty cool like Funeral For A Lonely Continent and Carbon Phrases just to name a few. This album definitely has alot going for it and despite the 70+ minutes on this album, you will wonder how fast everything went by once you get to the end. You can just almost tell, that this is not something to sleep on or mess with.
I give this a 9.5/10. I am the Grim Reaper, signing off.