This live album lands somewhere you wouldn’t expect at first glance - tucked into a Bach festival lineup in the Netherlands, with strings, sopranos, accordion and metal madness all on stage together. It kicks off in territory almost no other band would touch.
From the first bowed notes of “Allegro (BWV 1052‑I)” you can hear how carefully this was put together: classical voices and metal instruments locked in a space that could’ve easily collapsed on itself, but doesn’t. The piano concerto movements don’t feel like camp metal reinterpretations; they’re played seriously - layered with harsh guitars and drums that rumble like a different kind of storm, yet still let the original lines breathe and keep their identity.
“Haunter of the Void” is really where this album stretches its legs. Commissioned for the festival and built around Baroque counterpoint techniques applied to extreme metal, this ten‑minute epic isn’t some gimmick. It drifts and hits hard in turns, uneven and sprawling. Accordion and cello weave beneath riffs that hit like tectonic plates shifting, and the crowd reaction in the recordings isn’t polite clapping - the audience reacts loud, messy, spilling over the stage.
Alkaloid’s own material - expanded versions of “Beneath the Sea,” “Cthulhu,” “A Fool’s Desire,” and “The Fungi from Yuggoth” - benefits from this setting too. The classical ensemble doesn’t just ornament the songs; it changes the way the songs hit. Instead of studio precision, you get breath, space, and sometimes raw edges that make the heaviness feel real, not overworked.
The way “Agnus Dei (BWV 232)” comes out - sopranos taking the lead, metal instruments bowing out to let it stand on its own - is intriguing. The classical and metal parts meet without one dominating the other. That choice stops the album from simply being “metal plays Bach” and makes it feel like a serious dialogue.
It’s not a casual listen. Shifts between old and new - between chamber clarity and percussion punch - make you lean in to follow it. This isn’t just a gimmick. The live record ratchets tension, lets moments hang, and then hits again with full force.
Progressive metal and classical collide on stage. Classical technique and metal ferocity aren’t stapled together, they’re braided. And yes, strings squeak, drums stumble, voices crack - rough edges everywhere.
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