siLLy puPPy Proof that experimental extreme metal is the new prog of the 21st century, the London based QRIXKUOR has taken the underworld by storm in recent years with a series of innovative monstrous releases that continue to push the bar in terms of both complexity and innovation. Following last year’s “Poison Palinopsia,” this mere duo of S (vocals, guitars, bass) and D (drums) is back with a larger than life single track experience titled ZOETROPE.

While the EP is titled ZOETROPE, the single track features a lengthier syllabic soup of “Zoetrope (Psychospiritual Sparagmos)” and clocks in at just under 25 minutes. This vicious beast of a musical experience was released by both Invictus Productions and Dark Descent Records. The word ZOETROPE refers to a Victorian mechanical device that produces the illusion of animation by peeking through a hole of a cylindrical version of a phenakistiscope while various images rush by.

While tagged as technical death metal, black metal or progressive metal, QRIXKUOR is what i have come to refer to as astral abyss metal as band lead S seems to have the power to summon sonic demons from parallel dimensions and despite the pummeling military drumming assaults and droning guitar feedback fuzz utilizes symphonic 20th century classical ambience in order to craft a hypnotic effect that allows the listener to simply go along for the ride in a pacified pummeled state if you will.

QRIXKUOR is part of a new metal world where the extremes of worlds of death metal, black metal and doom metal have been alchemized into a new uglier Frankenstein of sonic terror that features an underpinning of divine beauty behind the decibel swarms of dissonant distortion. While only a mere track, ZOETROPE delivers a full album experience with a tone setting opening that slowly morphs droning guitars and swirling ambience into a ferocious assault of blackened death metal orotundity.

The track evolves into a complex array of extreme metal pummeling over 20th century avant-garde classical music compositional fortitude and at times when the symphonic elements are firing on all pistons does remind a bit of symphonic death metal bands such as Fleshgod Apocalypse or even Septicflesh. The difference is that QRIXKUOR doesn’t deliver short and catchy melodic compositions but rather glacial movements of ever-changing musical motifs that subtly ratchet up the tortuous tale like the animated device of the release’s namesake.

The metal angst completely drops out half way through and the classical elements are allowed to dominate the show for a while. This allows some palette cleansing and offers an insight into the true underpinnings of QRIXKUOR’s overarching plan of action which would be to display a classical music score completely decorated with extreme metal clothing. More modern metal bands have adopted this same approach with bands like Ad Nauseam, Abyssal, Coma Cluster Void and Ulcerate upping the complexity and inaccessibility factor of the metal universe with each subsequent release.

All in all ZOETROPE is a masterpiece of modern metal with an organic flow of violent noise channeled into patterns of sound that somehow emulate an episode of astral attacks from the demonic realm. Horror metal in the metaphysical world, the stuff that would give sorcerer’s psychological scars with never-ending nightmares for eternity. QRIXKUOR proves with ZOETROPE that his is no flash in the pan sort of musical act. The consistent growth and maturity continues to propel metal into the realms of the most sophisticated world of classical and progressive arenas of the musical world. To my ears, ZOETROPE is sheer perfection on multiple levels. QRIXKUOR has quickly become one of my favorite extreme bands of recent years.

siLLy puPPy As metal streams on into the future it just keeps getting more complex, more diverse and in some cases weirder than anyone from the early 1970s could’ve dreamed when Black Sabbath was ruling the world. In the 21st century there has been a strain of extreme metal that has adapted metal music into the compositional fortitude of 20th century avant-garde classical music making long technical meandering metal music that takes avant-garde and technical to strange new pinnacles of creation.

QRIXKUOR is one such band hailing from the UK and forming back in 2011 with its members simply presenting themselves as mere one-letter appellations. The first lineup of QRIXKUOR released its demo “Consecration of the Temple” in 2014 followed by a debut EP titled “Three Devils Dance” in 2016 however at a running length of 38:22 minutes, the so-called EP was really an album’s worth of twisted sprawling mangled metal magnanimity drenched in atmospheric drifting and technical maestrohood. After discovering this EP a few years back i was immediately hooked and have awaited a so-called debut full-length.

Well finally in 2021 QRIXKUOR has returned with POISON PALINOPSIA and takes the psychedelic and progressive metal knottiness to even further extremes. Five years in the making, POISON PALINOPSIA is pretty much an entirely new band started from scratch with only guitarist S keeping the band afloat in the sea of outrageously inventive metal bands on the world’s stage in the 2020s. Dropping the one-letter shtick, S is revealed to be Steve P on guitars and vocals and newbies Phil Kusabs on bass and drummer Dani Ben-Haim join forces to craft one of the loudest romps in technical progressive death metal in 2021.

POISON PALINOPSIA (palinopsia is a visual disorder in which the patient perceives a prolonged afterimage) is perfectly titled as the near 49-minute album which consists of only two 24 and something minute tracks do indeed flutter on like a stream of consciousness that mimics a comet in the heavens above only punctuated by aggressive guitar and bass riffs, bantering blastbeats and percussive drive and growling roars in the vein of Gorguts, Portal, Ad Nauseam, Ulcerate or Blood Incantation. While uncredited there are also classical music scores as the underbelly that bleed out from time to time. Mostly during the intros but also in non-metal moments of contemplation. This includes some sort of horn sounds and piano.

It goes without saying that QRIXKUOR will only appeal to those who crave the most complex, the most demanding and the most uncompromising type of metal bombast. This is music that is both ridiculously easy to follow and simultaneously crazy, complex and unpredictable. The first track “Serpentine Susurrus - Mother’s Abomination” almost comes off as a 24-minute metallic Krautrock jam from the 1970s with a single focus on drifting through lengthy atmospheric passages only punctuated with extreme metal. While maintaining a central fixation on a post-rock type of cyclical riffing loop, it allows motifs that come and go and offer some of the tech death prowess.

“Recrudescent Malevolence - Mother's Illumination” begins sounding like an atmospheric classical musical piece only set to dark ambient mode with tinkling piano tones and creepy swells of ambient sound but then proceeds to the world of Portal or Mitochondrion with atonal guitar squeals and explosive guitar, bass and drum excess. Unlike the first track, this one retains an unnerving atmospheric presence with harsh atonal guitar screeches which remain even once the stampede of manic metal delivers its full ferocity. This one comes across more as progressive doom metal with a slow stomp and a mid-section of metal-free that provides an intermission before the final ten minutes ramps up the molten metal meltdown.

Not for the feint of heart. This one is extreme in every possible way. The extreme death metal is firing on all cylinders as is the technical and progressive attributes. While not filled with catchy melodies, the cyclical riffing loops do provide somewhat of a melodic basis to grasp on however this is also atonal and dissonant metal which takes advantage of microtones and milks it for all its worth. In the end this will just be too extreme for most proggers and metalheads. This type of music is for the multi-genre crowds like me who can did the most jaded avant-prog, the freakiest atmospheric Krautrock, the most devastatingly beastial death metal and 20th century avant-garde classical scores all wrapped into one. Personally i’m a huge fan of this type of nightmarish sonic terror and this one is not to be missed for fans of Gorguts, Mitochondrion, Portal, Grave Miasma, Ad Nauseam and similar minded extreme metal acts.

siLLy puPPy At long last a secret is revealed. The one i speak of is that which conjures up the perfect soundtrack for a demoniacal betrothal or a Satanic soiree for those sentenced to infinity in Gehenna and Tartarus consequently furloughed for a brief respite from their eternal condemnation if only for a fleeting moment in the vast oceans of time. THREE DEVILS DANCE is the debut release by the London based QRIXKUOR which takes its name from the fictional bird that appears in Kenneth Grant’s novel “Against The Light,” a novel so bizarre and ambiguous that it blurs the lines between light and darkness, evokes the inner magus fantasies of Aleister Crowley and utterly challenges the perceptions of reality itself. And such is the bizarre world of QRIXKUOR that finds a way to summon THREE independent oppositional DEVILS and make them DANCE like no other band rooted in the vast world that death metal has achieved before which successfully blurs the lines of hitherto individual strains of the metal world and consummates their essences into one. Those THREE DEVILS being tech death, funeral doom and dark ambient.

In spite of the fact that THREE DEVILS DANCE is classified as an EP, it nevertheless clocks in at a fairly standard full-length album time of 38 minutes and 22 seconds but considering this is half running time of many modern day CDs, it could simply portend the intent of extremely long full-length albums to come. I hope this is not the case for i find this intense session of only three tracks to be a taxing, emotionally draining and a true chore to be taken in, but i mean that, of course, in a very good way as there is really not a lot that i can compare the sound of QRIXKUOR to directly. Upon the first listen it is apparent that these four guys who simply go by single letters: R (bass), A (guitar, vocals), M (drums), S (guitar) have taken the 21st developments of ever increasing intellectual content and imbued it with larger than life (or perhaps death) technicalities and thus infuses the listener with a heightened sense of multi-dimensional horror that permeates the astral and physical worlds alike.

The true sensation involved with THREE DEVILS DANCE is not that any of the elements are particularly new but rather in how they are combined together to create a more heightened type of effect. As far as the brutal metal aspects are concerned, QRIXKUOR takes the template of blackened war metal bands such as Blasphemy and Teitanblood in terms of sheer intensity but have obviously taken a clue from bands such as Grave Miasma and Portal with their incessantly perverse dissonant death metal riffage and adds layers of hazy distortion where the guitars and bass reverberate into the oblivion of metal miscellany. The production and tuned down parts that sluggishly churn along evoke the chilling dirges of the funeral doom universe and incorporates the nail-biting dread that is ubiquitously distributed throughout Esoteric albums for example. While the death metal frenzies are the basis of the underlying sound of QRIXKHOR, it is the dark ambient intros that utilize top-of-the-line production values to contrast sharply with the heavily down-tuned distortionfest that pummels the senses. QRIXKHOR diligently engages in creating frightful and intimidating atmospheres before they sally forth full steam ahead into the battlefields of brutality and drifting dirges.

The three tracks that compose THREE DEVILS DANCE are complex creations that effectively chill the senses with atmospheric trepidation and lambasting blastbeats laced with technical stringed dissonance that all collude to create an otherworldly effect. Hellish vocals, screeching guitars and disciplined tech death workouts conspire to make this one of my top picks of extreme metal releases for the year as it worships the cults of tenebrosity and complexity. This is only the debut release (barring two demos) from QRIXKUOR so it will be very exciting indeed to hear how they develop their already mature formulation beyond the Portal meets Mitochondrion meets Esoteric debut. The beauty in THREE DEVILS DANCE is not that QRIXKUOR has unleashed any of these elements from the crypts from whence they came but rather in how they incorporate these disparate forces into a clearer vision and harmonizes them into a product unlike any other. I am great hope that greater things are to come.