Alkaloid: Bach out of Bounds XL - Paard The Hague, 4 July 2024

Alkaloid are one of those tech death bands who are somehow linked with Obscura. Even if I learned only yesterday that Christian Münzner left the band this year. Alkaloid were approached by Dordrecht's Bach Festival if they could work on a show mixing Bach with Metal. While stating later they went out of ther comfort zone, they picked up the challenge. Last weekend their debut was played in Dordrecht. Next to the band as a five piece two female vocalists joined in and also two violin players one accordeonist and a cello player. I did not really know what to expect, but as I liked Alkaloid's debut album pretty much, curiousity brouht me to het Paard. The show was being played in the small hall and (tiny) chairs were put in place for an all seated event. The audience was also a blend of styles. A small majority were metalheads coming for Alkaloid. Another part seemed to be Bach interetsed and I guessed some conservatorium students wanted to see what this blend of styles resulted in. Luckily I did bump into some known faces, so not going alone trouh the motions tonight.

At 20:25 everyonne was asked to move up and pick a chair in the hall. When all members hit the stage it did not take long to realize I would like this. The show started with an Alkaloid song (don't ask me for titles) and the blend of all instruments within the music sounded fine. Next was a Bach suite in full and the mix of guitars soloing along the chamber orchestra setup was good again. Now I can admit, that I am not overly familiar with everything Bach, but as always with classical music for me, you do recognize the odd bits and pieces. Hereafter the evening would meander through songs without the vocalists a smaller setup for some parts and full stage performances. After some 45 minutes we got a break, needed to strech backs and legs. After the break a new song written by Alkaloid in the spirit of Bach was presented telling a long story, that I could not follow on the lyrics anyway. A same mix as before the break was presented. It was funny to see in the audience, how the metal part automatically nodded their heads along with the metal, while others kept necks and heads remarkably still all the time. While being a string of highs Alkaloid saved the best for last. The regular set ended with I believe The Funghi From Yuggoth. Here we went all out tech death until an instrumental part at the end was transfered to cello violin and drums. For me the highlight of the evening. It was great to see how the band watched smiling along too and the other way around the orchestral players also had huge smiles at times observing the metal around them. When all were standing up applauding we did get one more song and were asked to stay on foot (hurrah). One fine closer followed and I believe all agreed that this show was something special. I know many people from the Progpower camp who would have loved to see this. The good news is you have one more chance when 10 November a same show is played in Den Bosch (even if without XL behind the event name). I myself just checked teh German dates Akaloid are going to play with Obsidious later this year. Unfortunately I am not around those Decemer days, as I would consider a roadtrip. Once again it was proven that open minded going outside comfort zones does pay off. Also again it was shown that if the world would live by metal rules, we would all be better off. Different worlds met tonight on stage and in the audience and it just turned into one big happy place. A great initiative coming from Dordrecht resulting in an even better outcome.