If ever there were an album title that gave the game away, then the 2007 debut from this now-defunct Australian depressive black metal duo Austere would take the prize, the cake, the plate, the table, and the whole damned marquee – dripping in blood from the wrists of a million suicidal loons, obviously – were such a presentation ever to take place, of course. But the recently re-released Withering Illusions And Desolation (Wintereich Productions) is not about celebration. This is about despair, about futility, about the utter hopelessness of existence and our feeble failure to either discover or impose meaning on the foolish acts that constitute the absurdity that is our waking life.
Instrumentally, this is a dense and captivating work. Though on the surface, the guitars and drums may follow fairly simple arcs, the melodramatic weight of each track mounts as the album’s hues and textures are augmented with subtleties and nuances that taint its dark, vacant edges. From behind the wall-of-fire riffs emerge arpeggiated passages that, like Japanese Knotweed, by the time their presence is perceptible, the roots are too deep to be removed. Long, exposed vistas open up before us and Austere gently steer us deeper into the vacancy before us all. Vocally, both Desolate’s and Sorrow’s screams are the sound of torture, of pain, of suffering at an intolerable depth. And lyrically, there is a sense of the poetic about their stark simplicity and their candour. But as black and bleak as this nightmarish depiction of this senselessness is, there is a distinct melancholic beauty about this album. And together, the album works as an all-engulfing totality whose tracks can be listened to individually but make a greater impact in the wider context of the one hour that the five tracks consume.
Sixty minutes is a long time to give to any album, yes, but fans of the depressive/suicidal genre are more than prepared, their endurance levels greater than most and their appreciation of the meditative purposelessness more refined. As such, Withering Illusions And Desolation would be a worthy addition to fans of the genre, and for those yet to drag black metal’s waters a little deeper, this may entice you further into its charming abyss.
7/10
Jason Guest