From within the rotted cavern of stillborn creation, an encapsulation of the death of all unto horrified dissolution, a new nightmare rings echoic in its dance upon scene by the hands of London, England-based blackened death metal duo QRIXKUOR who’d relight their terminal orchestra for this exceptional sophomore full-length album. As the cervix begins to falter and the corpse-caverne builds its pressure ‘The Womb of the World‘ depicts the lurching downpour of nauseous disarray felt through the gut ’til the spine, a wrenching grip upon the cord pinging every corner of consciousness with terror and dysfunction. The surrealistic malaise afforded the listener now speaks a more sophisticate language as a dark and cinematic bent is deeper integrated within its full-featured chamber, generating a font where the dramatic wailing of disembodied souls accentuates what is yet essentially atmospheric death metal in arrange. No other album released this year better captures the steering of the wheel into downturn, the birth of the death of all, as this… at least nothing as effectively inhuman.

Qrixkuor formed as a quartet circa 2011 and through roughly 2016 they’d managed to realize both successful collective agreement as well as a fall beneath the overlay of founder, songwriter and (beyond that point) main performer S. (Adorior) through the trials of their first several years. In fact it was nearly a full decade before he’d managed a debut full-length (‘Poison Palinopsia‘, 2021) and the true spiritus of the project was enacted. With abstraction in mind, a strong education in music as well as ambitions into the unknown their efforts manifested as masterful longform compositions rooted in non-traditional death metal merged with orchestral movements writ by S. and performed by a nonet rather than the usual sampled, programmed or emulated adornment. Per interviews it was clear it were an extended struggle through ’til realization and the work’d reflected this brilliantly. I’d placed that first album and its “third act” (‘Zoetrope‘, 2022) high on my best of the year lists consecutively, praising the compositional force that’d been unleashed between the two while suggesting each record spoke a more singular voice. Without a doubt ‘The Womb of the World‘ achieves this in exponent, a new revelation for the artist and death music in general.

If you already possess an ear for cinematic scores which deal in both fantastical horror as well as empyreal hubris you will recognize the now full integration of orchestral arrangement into Qrixkuor‘s voicing as sinister invocation, an extra layer of diabolic muse which lends their more purely riff-driven yet abstracted past works unreal depth beyond even the outrageous discomfort of the two releases prior. In this way they’ve not escaped the doors opened by the delirium-inducing brilliancies of Portal entirely yet one wouldn’t mistake ‘The Womb of the World‘ for anything but this author’s work. Faceting diabolic symphony within a boiling mass of “blackened” atmospherically charged death metal typically goes in one particular direction with some manner of admirable later-era Emperor worship being the typical result, but in this case to label this release as “symphonic black metal” inspired almost appears antithetical to its effect, a disembodiment of the humanity of black and death metal diction into a hall-filling legion of gloriously morbid and chaotic forms.

As was the case with ‘Poison Palinopsia‘ there was a certain degree of vertigo to be had in both enjoying and examining Qrixkuor‘s latest work and not only for the level of detail condensed into each of these four ~12 minute pieces but for dizzying effect of steeping within them for hours at a time. Despite such intensive study of the moment-to-moment action found within it yet appears feeble to walk the listener through these corridors hand-in-hand as there is something to be said for braving the threat of suffocation and dementia likely to result. I will say that these are complete thoughts, nuanced events which provide true fusion of symphonic voice and not only sidled arrange. Opener “So Spoke the Silent Stars” is probably the most brain breaking event outright for the sake of appearing first and most detailed in its invocation of brutish atmospheric warrior class death metal a la Grave Miasma lead by the ear-burning motif which carries through opening moments, refrain and a the rallying despair of its closing statement. There is a growling, monstrous event taking place within that first piece which has floored me within each successive listen.

The full listen of ‘The Womb of the World‘ reveals its perilous events in layers where of course lead guitars, a tumultuous choir, scrambling piano runs, and grand-set strings generate immediate interest within each piece yet strangely enough the interplay between the drumming and guitar/bass work arrived later on in my experience, serving movements rather than “riffs” outright. It wasn’t until I’d managed a closer look at the bestially wrought attack of the guitar and bass arrangements that the albums rhythmic stance began to shine through. In this way we find sound design and capture from Greg Chandler of Priority Recording Studios bolstering what makes Qrixkuor stand out most, even moreso than their efforts on ‘Zoetrope‘, and managing an even more atmospherically charged event per its cavernous surrealism.

In my own experience with the album I’d found “Slithering Serendipity” was the song to most readily dominate in terms of battery and tonal clash atop the main guitar rhythms, a feat which pours its disorienting flood upon the ear beyond the grinding patience of the opener. If you are looking for high-strung technical feats here I would say this album enjoys a certain high standard but doesn’t aim for wild shredding or riff-after-riff glom so much as a certain desired effect, it almost appears designed away from the riff as key spectacle. There may very well be wailing guitar solos that’re more likely to catch your ear first, moreso within parts of “And You Shall Know Perdition As Your Shrine” alongside “Slithering Serendipity” but even still those end up being swells of transitional pressure more than outright spectacle in each case.

Set within the echoic terminus that is the closer/title track (“The Womb of the World”) I’d found my own peaking discomfort rattling beside some of the more ‘playful’ movements found on the full listen wherein sprawling luminous chaos eventually reaches a point of unhinged downward-marching threat. Here they’ve used the imposing sense of purpose applied to the whole of the work to walk steadily into disarray, or, as suggested a point of dissolution from within the firmament. I’d described Qrixkuor‘s work as intentioned and darkly driven between volatile threads prior yet here that suggested sense of purpose is more clearly illustrative, an intentionally daunting depiction which claws and stretches within the bat-winged confines of black/death metal muse. The fact that I feel pressure applied to the bounds of moderne extreme metal within this work is probably better endorsement than the neatness any summary statement might achieve but I will say that there is some genuine awe-for-all worth experiencing within this work. A highest possible recommendation.

---