out Aug. 13: Qrixkuor -- cavernous venomous

Qrixkuor

Poison Palinopsia

Dark Descent Records

13 August 2021

1. Serpentine Susurrus - Mother's Abomination (24:11)

2. Recrudescent Malevolence - Mother's Illumination (24:31)

Sometime ago a musician friend was telling me about an annoyance. His band had gotten good reviews, but none of those good ones were on Metal Archives, and the one review that was at said website was a particularly vindictive one, like the reviewer personally knows the musicians, and hates them as if they had stolen from him ten thousand dollars, his favorite pair of socks and his cat. It is the type of review that comes from a lot pent-up hatred, may be the reviewer is unemployed, his lover has left him for a more attractive person, and his anger and misery makes everything feel awful: all food tastes terrible, no jokes are funny anymore, all movies are bad, and all human beings irritate this person during this condition. That reviewer might have be taking out all his anger on some hard-working, DIY band.

This type of incident has also happened to Qrixkuor: "Man, you know, **** this band," said the reviewer. What is it about this band that the reviewer hates so much? The band "not only suck at writing compelling material but who shroud their music behind so much reverb and sonic obfuscation that trying to listen for redeeming elements quickly deteriorates into an exercise in frustration." See?! "Frustration"! It's tough to be positive when someone steals a reviewer’s lover, socks or cat, right?!

Qrixkuor is a U.K./New Zealand trio with a demo in 2014, another one in 2015, an EP in 2016, and a compilation in 2017. This is the full-length album. They play a form of ominous, cavernous extremity, the opposite of a crisp, clear, perfectionist, clinically-sanitized sound or style. Some people call it bestial, dark or primitive. The recording seems like an aural representation of a show in which there is a lot of sound coming from the stage, but you cannot see much of anything because the fog machine is operating at full blast. You hear plenty, but see little, until a bit later when the fog subsides, if the fog subsides. The compositions go in many directions, like fast, very fast, slow, ambient, a bit of dissonance, and brutal, and generally unmelodic. One would think that the best thing to do is to let the recording play, and let the compositions go where they may. The vocals are low, gruff, in the style of a mountain cave monster growling from a distance, and the guitars spiral, twist, dive, and gallop in the fog, and the drum beat is that cloudy guide to make your way through the haze: a sinister craft of cult, underground heaviness. Truth be told, with these two compositions, some patience is necessary with this long-form style of the bestial.

https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/poison-palinopsia

https://www.facebook.com/qrixkuor/

Qrixkuor - Poison Palinopsia album preview

Here is the previous recording from 2017, for your information.

Incantations from the Abyss by QRIXKUOR