Austere reigns over sadness.
With The Stillness of Dissolution, their fifth album, Mitchell “Desolate” Keepin (guitar/bass/keyboards/vocals, Temple Nightside, Unfelled, ex-Funeral Mourning…) and Tim “Sorrow” Yatras (drums/keyboards/vocals, Autumn’s Dawn, Germ, ex-Lord…) renew their trust in Prophecy Productions.
The immersion in darkness begins with Dissolved Exile, an admittedly dissonant but highly melodic and gripping first composition that meets raw and rather aggressive growls. Harmonics naturally find their way into this abrasive rhythm, distilling their heady melancholy, easily carrying our spirit along in their footsteps as they join Time Awry, which immediately darkens and offers heavier tones. The leads are still there to fill us with wonder, but they remain in these desolate hues, but the howls occasionally transform into reassuring clear vocals to nuance the oppression at work before reaching Redolent Foulness, which offers a much more ethereal and vaporous sound. It’s easy to get lost in the hazy riffs, complemented by soothing clean vocals and intense desperate roars before The Downfall with its haunting slowness and majestic riffs, wraps us in its sonic cocoon. The dissonant veil accompanies us once again throughout this chilling composition, but returns in a different guise for Rusted Veins, a slightly more energetic creation rooted in a piercing, Old School approach to their darkness. The harmonics are much more direct, allowing the solid rhythm to progress evenly while the vocals mingle, then we return to this torrent of emotions on Storm within My Heart, the final composition on which the duo unleash themselves and offer a heart-rending performance, whether instrumentally or in their so moving and expressive vocals, complemented by rather imposing keyboards in the background.
The return of Austere had been a great relief to the sullen side of Black Metal, and the band proves to us release after release that they are among the masters. The Stillness of Dissolution has not finished moving us and shedding tears and ink.
95/100