It varies. I would say that in words like "psalm," "balm," "calm," "palm," you should not hear the L as a consonant. In contrast, in "almost," "salmonella," "ophthalmic," you do hear it as a consonant.
The "L" after the "A" indicates a deeper, darker vowel sound, similar to the vowel sound in "cot," "watt," and "sock." These words could have been spelled with an H instead of an L--"sahm," "bahm," "cahm," "pahm,"--but the fact is they are spelled with an L.