Austere - Discography

Band: Austere
Genre: Black Metal
Country: Australia

  I choose Austere to be my first post not only for been one of the best depressives bands, but also because this band for me is an example that there is a lot of great metal bands that are not from Europe or US. People should know and listen more to the bands from their respective countries, because there is a lot of great bands near you, and you might not even know.

 Austere is an Australian Black Metal act with consists of 2 members. They started he project in 2007 and released 1 full length album called “Withering Illusions and Desolation”. They have also released two splits, one with the German Isolation, and one with Lyrinx, from the United Kingdom. A new full length will be released in 2009, called “To Lay Like Old Ashes”.

 Austere style of music is hard to describe, it is a mix of various sub-genres of black metal, but one thing is certain, the songs are melancholic and depressive. Austere is one of those bands that people into all kinds of music enjoy.

   Austere has become a very influential band in all the black metal scene. While the lyrics seems like of a DSBM band, the rhythm is of different styles, but in the end everything works so good together. The vocal work is awesome, this band is truly great.

   I highly recommend this band for everyone.

 Band members:

Desolate - Guitar, bass, vocals (Funeral Mourning, Kinstrife & Blood, Nazxul, Pestilential Shadows)

Sorrow - Drums, vocals (Baal Gadrial, Battalion (Aus), Black Reign (Aus), Dungeon (Aus), Ilium, Kinstrife & Blood, Lord (Aus), Nazxul, Pestilential Shadows, Paindivision, Rift, Simon Polhill)

Withering Illusions and Desolation (2007)

For the debut album of Austere, it seems like they will always be recognized as the pinnacle of this genre of metal. Slow and melancholic melodies with loud shrieks of pain is a good description for this album.

Desolate has definitely shown his best work in this band as his instrumental work is phenomenal and captivating. He expresses so much emotion through his guitar work as best shown in the first track of the album, "Unending Nights". The music is well crafted together with much passion. His vocals are incredible, as if being tortured to death, fitting the music very well. With such melodic riffs of depression, and extremely powerful vocals, it is no wonder why the album is so great.

Sorrow's work in the album consisted with the drums which are very well put in and goes along very well with the music. His vocals in the album are a little different from Desolate's, but still fitting for the music.

The album is very great! If you are the type that must have good production in there music then stay away. Other than that if you just love the music for what it is then get this, it's superb.

Type: Full-length
Size: 95,7 MB

1. Unending Night
2. ...Memories
3. The Dawn Remains Silent
4. Withering Illusions ans Desolation
5. Coma

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Only The Wind Remembers / Ending of the Circle of Life (2008)

This is one of my favorite splits. The Austere track Towards the Great Unknown gradually builds up to a beautiful, acoustic-layered riff, adding great emphasis to the lengthy track. This is my favorite part of the whole release. The second track by Austere closes well, keeping the depressing mood to introduce Lyrinx for the second half.

The calmer parts in the tracks by Lyrinx are great. I love their instrumentation, my favorite being the drums. Overall, their work on this album is better than that of Austere. They wrap the split up with a guitar solo fading out, suddenly ending the song. I loved the unexpected ending because it leaves me wondering and still intrigued by the melancholy of the track.

The opening track to the split started very calmly with the guitar playing alone establishing the melancholic atmosphere. I usually listen to this one only to hear the middle of the track. Eventually, the vocals start, accompanied by a gloomy riff, grabbing my full attention by establishing the desired mood. The vocals are random throughout the song, and the different movements in the tracks seem to drag on.

During the tracks from Austere, it is easy to become bored. If it wasn't for the acoustic part in the middle of the first track and the unique vocals here and there, I may not like their half of the split; however, I do like how their first song ends similarly to the calm way it started.

It took me a while to get used to Austere's vocals, even though they keep my attention when certain parts drag on. Austere seems to be too redundant for my taste at times. They need to rely less on their vocals and add more changes in instrumentation to evoke feelings in their music. The awkward vocals blur the slight changes in the songs together, leaving the songs easily forgettable. Even though the changes are meant to be gradual, they are too bland.

In contrast to Austere, the Lyrinx vocals do not take away from the music. They blend well with it. The slow tempo works well for this band and the use of the constant drum beats create great emphasis in certain areas of their songs. They sometimes seem to work against the slow tempo to help create the tension in the climatic areas. The beats are also altered slightly at times, which helped keep my attention during the monotonous parts.

Lyrinx opens with an extremely catchy drumming pattern, and the atmosphere is consistent throughout their half of the split. Unlike Austere, I was not bored at anytime by Lyrinx. The typical vocals seem to mesh well with the instrumentation.

The band kept me intrigued by making minor changes in the drum beats and guitar riffs throughout No Failure in Suicide. I really like how the tempo of this track gradually decreases as the song ends. Isolation opens in a similar way to the previous track. Towards the middle of the final track, the vocals and guitars stop. The drums and bass are left, evoking solitude. Lyrinx is extremely consistent in keeping my attention, shining over Austere throughout the entire release.

Type: Split

Bands: Austere / Lyrinx
Size: 135 MB

Austere:
1.  Towards the Great Unknown
2.  Only The Wind Remembers
 

Lyrinx:
3.  No Failure in Solitude
4.  Isolation

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Bleak... (2008)

I was drawn to this spilt album on the strength of material Austere has written previously and here they do not disappoint and are also the stronger band. In fact this material is probably their best yet. The production is the first thing you will notice that has improved, a louder mix with all instruments ringing out clearly. They still have their excellent layered guitar sound with those subtle melodies floating around.

‘When even tomorrow looks away’ begins with a noticeable drum off beat? (I’m no musician but I’m sure there is a name for this irregular pattern) which hooks you straight away. Desolates vocals are as sheer as ever, echoing of the empty planes and blending with rest of the instruments well. I did actually have trouble with the vocals when I first heard the band, however they are in unison with the sombre music they offer. A lonely cry for help and probably damn hard to pull off for any length of time (if you’ve tried doing black metal vocals in the past you’ll know what I mean). There is a short respite roughly half way through where a new riff is taken up and then we are treated to some excellent double bass drums that roll along nicely. In fact if it were not for the fluid drumming on the spilt album I don’t think it would have been as interesting, it was a good decision by the band to speed things up a little here and there.

‘Instrumental’ could have been fleshed out into another epic however it’s been kept short and works perfectly to bind the two long play pieces.

‘There’s nothing Left’ sees the pace picked up again and some clear vocals added into the mix providing another dimension to the song writing. This is clearly a band experimenting and pulling it off admirably. You need to wait a little longer for a change in the repetitive riffs here but it does come and between them a sampled thunder storm erupts before the epic breaks in again. This song is close to 14mins long however the time never drags by. If this split album is anything to go by the next full length should be very interesting.

Isolation continues with the misery however in a much different style. ‘From nowhere…’ is slow to start, with acoustic guitar and eventually sparse drumming. The drummer has difficulty keeping good rhythm at this slow pace and sounds a little amateurish. ‘Mosaic’ blends in nicely with the same acoustic guitar sound. It’s not long before a typical black metal sounding distortions kicks in. Vocals are clear sung but do not impress with power, there are some screamed lines that have more impact on the song. They just about pull of the 16mins of this track before jumping into ‘..to nowhere’ which is basically the same track as ‘from nowhere…’ that has been cleverly split. This trundles along and brings to a close the album. Nothing special, it only really serves to show how it should be done when compared to Austeres fantastic offering. Although at the time of writing Isolation haven’t even made a full length so I don’t expect wonders from them.

 Type: Split

Bands: Austere / Isolation
Size: 130 MB
 

Austere:
1.  When Even Tomorrow Looks Away
2.  Instrumental
3.  There's Nothing Left
 

Isolation:
4.  From Nowhere...
5.  Mosaic
6.  ...to Nowhere

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To Lay Like Old Ashes (2009)

Austere's To Lay Like Old Ashes is a black metal album like no other. At least not that I've ever heard. It strays away from typical black metal beats and rhythms and takes a whole new approach to the genre, so if you're expecting a typical black metal album you may want to look elsewhere. It's one of those albums that should just be listened to as one song. The album is very heavy, atmospheric, epic, raw, however it is slower than typical black metal.

The music in this album is slower than typical black metal. It's very heavy and atmospheric. The singer ranges from dark, high-pitched black metal screams, to singing, even with some growling thrown in sometimes. His voice can be really raw and kinda sounds like someone dying, however it is still soothing, but maybe that's just me ; ). Anyway, the vocals fit really well with the whole mood of the album, which some would call "depressive black metal" because it's really thought-provoking and emotional, it makes you sit there and think about everything, though it is not too depressive, IMO. It's black metal you can sit and relax too.

The songs are on this album are very epic and dark. The keyboards are not overplayed and forced on you, but rather flow with guitars and drums like any other instrument. The guitars are heavy, melodic and raw at the same time. The first song on the album "To Fade With the Dusk" really stands out in it's epic-ness. All the instruments just flow together and the keyboards add a really dark tone that's very relaxing and the whole song makes me think about life and death. It really sets the mood out for the rest of the album.

In the song "Just For A Moment... " the vocalist starts singing, and while most metal fans may dislike his voice I think it goes very well with the song and the theme of the album. He is definitely not the most "metal" of singers but his voice is still pretty good. Besides the obvious difference in vocals, the guitars and drums in the song are a little light for black metal, too, however the song is still decent though probably my least favorite on the album. It is just under 6 minutes long so it's over pretty quickly.

The last "song" (I don't really consider it a song) on the album Coma II is a closing "instrumental" just under 21 minutes long. I really wish they would have just left this song out or at least make it about 17 minutes shorter. The whole song is literally one riff repeated over and over with creepy sound effects in the background. While this could have made a great closing song if it was a lot shorter, after about 3-4 minutes you just want to change the song.

Listening Austere's To Lay Like Old Ashes is definitely worth it, especially if you want to listen to something that is not like your typical black metal band. It's very relaxing, epic and atmospheric music. The vocals are very raw, dark and high-pitched, though not annoyingly high-pitched, even though he does sing in one song. None of the instruments are forced on you, but rather flow together to make one excellent melody. If you like slow, thought-evoking, possibly depressing black metal, this album may be for you. Just check it out either way, you never know.

Type: Full-length
Size: 84,8 MB

1. Down
2. To Fade with the Dusk
3. This Dreadful Emptiness
4. To Lay Like Old Ashes
5. Just for a Moment...
6. Coma II

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