From Bandcamp, “With their fifth album, "The Stillness of Dissolution," AUSTERE embark on a dark journey that leads through the abyss of time, the inevitable return of order to chaos into the black void. In the words of the poet: everything that arises is worth that it perishes. The new album brings an overall blacker feel to their sound. This slight change of course does not constitute an easy nostalgic return to the old days as AUSTERE remain within the framework of the more mature and defined version of their particular style of depressive black metal, which reflects their greater experience and evolution as artists.”

The album has six songs, and “Dissolved Exile” is first. The opening tones are thick, and there is a hasty quality to the music. The riffs are discernable among the harsh vocals, which is something you don’t often hear in the genre. There is a deep web of both solemn tones and aggressive ones, and the balance is spectacular. “Time Awry” has deeper and thicker edges, and a contentious sound, almost like a junkyard dog who hasn’t been fed in a while. The music also has a regal quality to it…as if it rises above the mundane and soars into the night sky. “Redolent Foulness” has clean, harmonized vocals and a weighted base. The skies shift from tones of grey to darker at times, and even the other direction, and it’s hard to gain a firm bearing of where you are.

“The Downfall” has semi-clean guitar tones, a bit fuzzy actually, and some very melancholy feelings. The clean vocals are inauspicious at first, but they roll into harsh bouts of pain…the kind of pain from a deep wound that keeps you screaming. “Rusted Veins” has a rousing riff and more of the power that the band displayed on previous songs. Some of the lead breaks are reminiscent of the MeloDeath genre to me, further displaying the band’s ability to avoid being easily pigeonholed. “Storm Within My Heart” closes the album, and it’s a rich and full sound with a constant struggle between sorrow and downright hatred. This is a struggle with no clean victor on the album.

Although at its core this is Black Metal, it is so much more. AUSTERE have stretched the boundaries of the genre, explored uncharted territories, and walked into the very void itself with this album. The song structures are intelligent, and intricate, and each note comes from someone who has a clear vision of the album.