Style: Progressive Death Metal, Modern Classical (Mixed Vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Bach, Obscura, Augury, Gorod
Country: Germany
Release date: 23 January 2026

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I feel like the live album exists in an odd space within the progressive metal scene. The majority of bands seem to take the opportunity to show off how tight they are, how much stamina they have, or how close they can get to the sound of their recorded material in a live setting. This is all fine and well, but outside of curated setlists—or the occasional medley—it’s relatively rare for bands to utilize the live album to truly investigate the freedom such a medium has the potential to provide.¹ 

Alkaloid is one of the outliers, having decided to use their first live album to explore the parallels between their progressive death metal sound and the stylings of Johann Sebastian Bach. Comprising three rearrangements of Bach’s compositions, three songs from the Alkaloid backlog, and two brand new compositions, Bach Out of Bounds seeks to synthesize the texture and technique of Bach within its progressive death metal scaffolding. Alkaloid are veterans of such prog-death alchemy, with their previous works incorporating plenty of world music influence alongside a smattering of classical inspiration (Numen was The Progressive Subway’s sitewide AOTY in 2023 partly because of this). This time around, an ensemble of vocalists, string players, and an accordionist joins the band in pursuit of their goal, but extreme metal has a rocky-at-best track record of successfully incorporating classical elements in such brazen fashion—despite what Reddit armchair music philosophers would have you believe. 

Alkaloid begin their show with a reimagining of the first two movements of Bach’s “Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052”: “Allegro” and “Adagio”. “Allegro” is kept relatively close to the source material from a compositional standpoint, though necessary adjustments have been made to fit the piece within the context of a death metal quintet. The guest ensemble helps alleviate some of the stress of such an arrangement, but from the very first notes, the limits of Alkaloid’s instrumentation is glaringly obvious. Achieving the textural and dynamic depth required of such a piece is simply impossible on such aggressive, distorted instruments. The rich, harmonic texture provided by the strings; the swelling, sighing micro-dynamics of fine-tuned acoustic instruments; and the performative expression through rubato and other techniques that truly elevate such music are much better suited to the intimate harpsichord and string ensemble that “Allegro” was originally intended for. 

None of the above is the fault of Alkaloid though; rather, such limitations are simply baked into the nature of the compositions themselves. For their own purposes, Alkaloid have done quite well with the arrangements, especially when keeping in mind the band’s original intent of exploring the parallels between Bach’s work and their own brand of prog-death composition. “Adagio” showcases exactly this: what is originally a soft, tender piece of music is completely reimagined into a heavy, lumbering death-doom-esque experience, though such a drastic adaptation works entirely in Alkaloid’s favor. The accompanying string and vocal ensemble are utilized to their fullest, and the aggressive edge of the metal instrumentation pushes the atmosphere from “sombre and morose” to “ghastly and tragic”. Put together, Alkaloid’s arrangements of “Allegro” and “Adagio” mirror their techy Obscura side and their slower, Opeth-ian chuggy side respectively, while simultaneously allowing the band to explore these facets of their sound through their obvious love of classical music.

Conversely, Alkaloid have also attempted to inject the textures and techniques of Bach into their own, original work. Vocalist Morean notes: “The idea behind this performance wasn’t necessarily for us to try and write a Bach song, we wanted to use Bach’s techniques to write an Alkaloid song”. From this perspective, Bach Out of Bounds starts to make more sense, and its character starts to crystallize even further. “Beneath the Sea” acts as a build-up track to the already popular “Cthulhu”, reimagining the latter’s main theme in a more cadenced form, injecting additional harmony and adding a new vocal melody on top of it. By the time “Cthulhu” itself starts though, the theme has been extrapolated upon so heavily that the opening riff loses some of its “oomph”. The other original track, “Haunter of the Void”, is certainly the highlight of Bach Out of Bounds. Commissioned by the Dutch Performing Arts Fund (FPK) and written especially for Bach Out of Bounds, “Haunter of the Void” fully utilizes all twelve performers, bringing to life Morean’s dream of writing an Alkaloid song using the techniques of Bach. Spanning a respectable ten minutes, the track blooms from intimate strings and operatic vocals into a full fledged prog-death heater, with plenty of odd Alkaloid-isms along the way.

Bach Out of Bounds is a respectable piece of work, but at the same time feels a bit like a “you had to be there” experience. The arrangements are all very interesting—even the three tracks from previous albums incorporate the guest musicians in creative ways—but they don’t necessarily lend themselves well to a cohesive, recorded, ordered album experience. Still, I much prefer a live album like Bach Out of Bounds to a standard recorded live performance. Alkaloid obviously pushed themselves to make a performance like this happen, and the result gives a fresh perspective on their already unique take on progressive death metal. I may not spend much time with Bach Out of Bounds beyond what was necessary for review purposes, but I am certainly more motivated than ever to catch Alkaloid live the next time they roll through my neck of the woods. 

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Recommended tracks: Allegro (BMW 1052-I), Haunter of the Void, Agnus Dei (BWV 232)
You may also like: Obsidious, Dark Fortress, Hannes Grossmann, Linus Klausenitzer
Final verdict: 6/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Season of Mist

Alkaloid is:
– Morean (vocals, guitar)
– Linus Klausenitzer (bass)
– Hannes Grossmann (drums)
– Max Blok (guitar)
– Justin Hombach (guitar)
With guests:
– Rianne Wilbers (soprano)
– Chrysa Tsaltampasi (soprano)
– Julija Hartig (violin)
– Oene van Geel (5-string violin)
– Marieke Hopman (accordion)
– Ketevan Roinishvili (cello)

1.  Dream Theater kind of does this with their Official Bootleg series of live covers they’ve performed over the years. Gojira’s Maciste all’Inferno and Talking Head’s Stop Making Sense also deserve shout-outs. ↩︎