Dmitry Nevozhay
Whirlwind of orchestrated chaos, harsh but melodic, creepy and unsettling but alluring. True masters of avantgarde dissonant blackened death.
Emerging from the serpentine susurrus left in the wake of last year’s monstrous two-part epic ‘Poison Palinopsia,’ Qrixkuor swiftly rise again to present a new EP entitled ‘Zoetrope’ - a single black arrow of death sent straight to the heart of the world - to be released on CD and CS format on Friday 18th November, joined in darkness again by Invictus Productions in Europe and Dark Descent Records in the USA, with vinyl format to follow in early 2023.
Returning to Priory Recording Studios in Birmingham, England, to record, mix and master the track with the acclaimed Greg Chandler and with cover art this time contributed by the extraordinary Santiago Caruso, the textural approach of ‘Zoetrope’ dilates the divine eye of death metal to unmapped dimensions, dispatching a boot to the face of the idea that it’s marriage with symphonic timbres must be synonymous with floral harmonies backed by sterile production and performed by lifeless sample libraries. ‘Zoetrope’ is majestic, but any beauty has long since withered, and what remains is the discordant dirge of Qrixkuor’s cacophonous duet with the Orchestra of the Eternal Return.
‘Zoetrope’ is an ode to the terror of the cyclic infinite - the endless, silent scream of a mind that has wandered so far that it cannot return. The soul that burns on everlasting, each thousand-year journey the mere blink of an eye. There is no escape…
credits
released December 2, 2022
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Greg Chandler at Priory Recording Studios
A labyrinthine exploration of the most otherworldly aspects of death metal and black metal's caustic intermixing. Filled with nuanced structures that veer into a multitude of directions with a focused sound, there is a noticeable intent to pull each genre further along into a new world. Presenting mazes of songs that unfurl and restrict in tandem before spiraling to another place, Ulthar stand at the forefront of what can be accomplished in extreme metal. Lorenzo
Gloriously unrelenting, the new black metal masterpiece from Moray uses slashing riffs and searing vocals to tell an unsettling story. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 5, 2023
Two monolithic tracks bringing a true vision of layered technical blackened death to its full, uninterrupted scope. Twisting in their journeys to expand the world (and universe), Ulthar carry forth an individualistic sound that looks to add in experimental and relatively avant-garde complexities to their work. The way the songs have a life as they change, grow, and morph is remarkable. Lorenzo