Liquid Anatomy was one of my most spun albums of 2018 along with Esoteric Malacology. It had an insane amount of ideas packed into its lengthy 65 minute runtime, all engaging because of a constantly shifting form and memorable writing. To say that I had expectations for Numen is understating it. Alkaloid have not changed much of their formula of Morbid Angel meets Yes in 2023. New to the mix is a slight push towards Heavy Metal leads that crop up here and there, as seen in “A Fool’s Desire” that opens with some acoustics recalling Caprae Idolum‘s Matches EP before mixing and matching Heavy Metal with Death Metal outbursts. Some moments of Jazz also break up “Qliphosis” and generally mix well with the Death Metal wherever it arises. Fittingly, Morean‘s vocals go to Imeperial Triumphant levels of low gurgles in “Shades of Shub-Niggurath” and stay as compelling and impressive throughout the album. The three “Dyson Sphere”-suite songs that make up most of the ending of Numen (“Numen”, “Recursion” and “The Folding”) impress with plenty of odd yet memorable ideas. The more I listen to Numen, the more I am struck by the great ideas that fill around 35 to 40 minutes of its runtime. This album has some really cool parts to it.
But Numen is a 70 minute long album and therein lies a significant problem. Nay-sayers were deriding Liquid Anatomy for its 65 minutes being too long but the writing saves it throughout, even when the last song covers almost 20 of those minutes. Numen instead stumbles in this regard. Songs like “The Fungi From Yuggoth” drones on with groovy Death Metal riffs like “As Decreed by Laws Unwritten” did before it, but it lacks that song’s direction. Similarly, “Clusterfuck” dives into Jazzy rhythms like “Azagthoth” but hinges on a forgettable chorus that makes the song feel undercooked. A lot of the album lacks direction in this way and screams out for a second pass of editing. I get that the Progressive genres need space for exploration but if little is actually explored, editing is a better friend to seek out. This is abundantly clear when one of the best songs end up being the furious “The Cambrian Explosion”, where its 4-minute blast of grooves and an actually compelling chorus injects much needed life into the flow of the opening salvo of songs. It makes me wonder what a leaner, meaner and perhaps Grind-infused Alkaloid would sound like. However, in its final form Numen has me zoning out in the 50 minutes of content that are not “The Cambrian Explosion” or The Dyson-songs. I love what Alkaloid were doing on Liquid Anatomy but the parts again float in a sea of Prog experimentation like they did in the debut. With such stellar work by Horrendous and Tomb Mold this year, I sadly feel much less compelled to come back to Numen.
