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.Continue reading
Tag Archives: Jason Gues
High On Fire – Spitting Fire Live Vol. 1 & 2
What’s the purpose of live albums? Fillers while ardent fans await the next studio release? “Contractual obligation”? Money spinners? Memento for those in attendance? Homework for those that weren’t? Fifteen years and six albums in and High On Fire are releasing another live album – recorded in late 2012 – this time in not one but two parts, no, sorry, “volumes”. Featuring career-spanning material, the combined track listing is a pretty good representation of the band at their best, and so is the performance. As on the band’s studio releases, Kensel’s drumming is tight, his sledgehammer-heavy beats spitting sweat from the speakers, Matz’s low register rumble is all a-thunder, Pike’s guitar spews out angry riffs and reverbed-into-the-cosmos lead breaks, and his gargled growl is gargantuan.Continue reading