Artist: Qrixkuor
Country: United Kingdom
Label: Dark Descent Records / Invictus Productions
Formats: LP / Cassette tape / CD
Year: 2025
‘The Womb of the World’ may only be the second album of Qrixkuor, but the band has taken immense steps since their formation in 2011. After their humble demo beginnings, the first EP ‘Three Devils Dance’ gave a first promising glimpse at their brooding Death and Black Metal amalgam. Often slowly creeping and utterly heavy, the mood was contrasted by meandering melodic guitar leads. But that first EP was a mere stepping stone. On the band’s first full-length ‘Poison Palinopsia’, the music had diversified and grown to full maturity. An all-consuming brooding mass of turbulence, its two monstrous tracks plunged the listener further into the vortex created by band mastermind S. Not much later, the singular track on the EP ‘Zoetrope’ added a sense of theatrics and bombast to the formula, mostly in the more prominent addition of cosmic elements. And with the release of ‘The Womb of the World’, members S and D plunge us deeper into their otherworldly dimension.
Indeed, ‘The Womb of the World’ feels like a logical evolution from ‘Zoetrope’ but by no means quietly sits on the same formula. For one, the tracks on the latest album are more compact, with song lengths ranging between “just” eight and half and 17 minutes. That’s certainly a noticeable change from the monumental 24-minute opuses that marked the preceding debut album and subsequent EP. Furthermore, the bombast is cranked up a notch. Take for instance the opening ‘So Spoke the Silent Stars’, a song laden with keyboard accents and theatrical operatic vocals. These are more seamlessly integrated into the Qrixkuor sound and add a further level of horror and grandeur to the music. This is all on top of the volatile mixture of earth-shattering guitars, dynamic drum pace and contrasting beauty in the leads.
The end result is an even more sinister and insane affair than we already were served on their previous recordings. With the reduced song length the intensity is turned markedly, yet the songs retain their enveloping character. The gnarly keys in ‘Slithering Serendipity’ add a new haunted dimension to the Blackened Death Metal, creating more layers without sounding too chaotic. As ever, the contrasting melodies of the guitars provide a safe haven in the looming storm, a false sense of hope in a sea of darkness. Likewise, the vocal contribution of Adorior’s Jaded Lungs in ‘And You Shall Know Perdition As Your Shrine’ feels like a succubus enchanting, luring the weak of heart and soul into a merciless trap. With a menacing increase in tempo starting off the song, it collapses into a darkened session with a disturbing duet of guitar and keys, deep howls and frantic soloing before demon temptresses take their bewitching turn. The title track is the lengthiest of them all, a pressing and brooding monster with meandering guitars. The distant piano tones are eerie, yet slightly more reserved and obedient to the massive guitar sound. Yet, there is a sense of elation towards the end, for instance in the bells and the more open solos that develop. Certainly, the level of musicality is striking here, and it feels as if Qrixkuor has outdone themselves in every possible aspect, from the beauty and the madness to the bombast and the intensity.
More disturbing, theatrical and layered, ‘The Womb of the World’ has pushed the formula of ‘Zoetrope’ and ‘Poison Palinopsia’ even further. With more seamless incorporation of bombastic elements and slightly shorter track length, the intensity has been driven to a new level. Certainly, the brooding and maddening sound that Qrixkuor offers is not for the faint of heart, but the contrasting mixture of volatile pace, crushing heaviness, melodic beauty and lunatic symphony is utterly compelling to those willing to give themselves to this darkness.
