Qrixkuor

INCANTATIONS FROM THE ABYSS

How does a band go further down the claustrophobic path that started off with early Grave Miasma and stretches, at most, to Teitanblood? You can take a yet more twisted course like Portal did, or you can regress until you become the musical equivalent of an amoeba, à la Grave Upheaval. In comparison, these Londoners may sound a tad predictable at first with their tremolo riffing, reverbdrenched overall chaos and undecipherable vocals, especially since Incantations is not a new release per se but actually two demos initially available in very limited quantities in 2014 and 2015. But underneath this seemingly impenetrable wall of sound, Qrixkuor’s purposely repetitive and epic structures – their cover of Demoncy’s Winter Bliss is the only song of the five under the nine-minute mark – eventually work in their favour, especially with flashes of putrid doom and some blazing solo works breaking the mould once in a while.