
ALKALOID are mad scientists. With each album, the extreme metal concocters have poked and prodded at mysterious phenomena both of this world and far beyond. They’ve written a song about what lies beneath the Antarctic crust, as well as an ongoing saga about a galactic civilization that ascends to a god-like-level of domination.
Now, after five years, ALKALOID are back with their third full-length and it’s got some of their most intricate, thought-provoking and batsh*t insane ideas yet. Numen is a 70-minute monolith of an album that doesn’t just colonize interstellar space with sentient fungi and cephalopods. No; it grabs the fabric of the universe and ties it into knots to break time and space themselves. The Bavarian band plays around with all kinds of genre experiments, effortlessly flipping death metal on its horned head with seductive flurries of jazz, flamenco, rock and gospel choirs.
But ALKALOID are still bonded together by their love of extreme metal. After all, they are a supergroup made up of long-serving members of OBSCURA, DARK FORTRESS, TRIPTYKON and other genre heavyweights. “Clusterf*ck” might have a clean and catchy chorus, but even the fiery, finger-tapped solo that squiggles loose around the four-minute mark is crushed like an ant between colliding moons.
Here’s what the band has to say about their new single: “It’s one of our shorter and more moderate tracks – maybe uncharacteristically so, once you see the whole album. But “Clusterf*ck” still covers the classic ALKALOID spectrum between groove, hooks, brutality and complexity. The lyrics address the question of why we as a species should aspire to greatness at all, when we know that in all probability, we’re going to fail anyway.”
Numen track listing:
Disc 1
1. Qliphosis (07:48)
2. The Cambrian Explosion (03:58)
3. Clusterf*ck (06:00)
4. Shades of Shub-Niggurath (06:11)
5. A Fool’s Desire (08:10)
6. The Fungi From Yuggoth (06:06)
Disc 2
1. The Black Siren (Instrumental) (1:39)
2. Numen (Dyson VII) (7:03)
3. Recursion (Dyson VIII) (3:29)
4. The Folding (Dyson IX) (6:54)
5. Alpha Aur (13:23)

Reeder, the visionary behind Metal Addicts, has transformed his lifelong passion for metal into a thriving online community for metal aficionados. As a fervent devotee of black metal, Reeder is captivated by its dark, atmospheric, and often unorthodox soundscapes.