QRIXKUOR — Poison Palinopsia (review)

QRIXKUOR — Poison Palinopsia album cover

Album · 2021 · Death Metal

4/5 · 2021-10-05
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.