Qrixkuor – The Womb of the World (Review)

This is the second album from Qrixkuor, a death metal band from the UK.

Following on from 2021’s monstrous Poisoning Palinopsia comes The Womb of the World. Qrixkuor’s new record contains four songs, totalling a full duration of 50 minutes. It’s punishing, but also terrifyingly beautiful.

The Womb of the World is a brutal and dark amalgamation of black and death metal, but it’s also a lot more than just this. This time around Qrixkuor’s colossal sound has become increasingly layered, with orchestral enrichments now woven into the very fabric of the music’s DNA. It’s a striking sound that sits somewhere between chaotic black/death extremity and neoclassical grandeur. Qrixkuor have crafted four serpentine songs that are sinister and malevolent.

Qrixkuor use strings to enhance the whole, rather than simply allowing them to exist in colourful adornment. This is a firmly embedded example of classical music being successfully incorporated into extreme metal at a foundational level. It’s seamless, and so deeply entwined that were it to be excised, the host would die. Rather than being a mere addition, as this sort of thing so frequently is, here it’s essential. The music draws intimate power from its symphonic elements, allowing the rest to ascend to greater heights of fervour. This is blackened death metal with cinematic scope and rare ambition.

The Womb of the World is overstimulating, in a good way. It’s rich and textured, with so much to explore and experience you can easily get lost in its twisting labyrinthine sound, losing yourself for vast stretches of time to the band’s complex compositions. Beware, for fall too far for too long into Qrixkuor’s multifaceted embrace and you may never return.

The Womb of the World is extraordinary. It’s vast, dense, complex, and powerfully atmospheric. The album has a sense of self and of its own horrific presence that’s potent; this is music that knows exactly what it is, and exactly how special it is.

For fans of black/death underground extremity, this is an essential listen.