AUSTERITY – AUSTERITY (2009)

So you think funeral doom is as narrow and trodden a path as every other niche and branch from the phylogenetic tree of metal? Well. Ever heard Italian funeral doom with a focus on drone and ambient sections? Ever got excited at the prospect of a funeral doom project incorporating drone and ambient? No, me either. I have to ask you to shove your murmuring bullshit remarks to the back of your head for 2 hours until you have sat through this experience though, because this is a delicious listen.

AUSTERITY is a one man funeral doom project from Italy. I hesitate to include the ‘funeral doom’ tag because of the commonly held preconceptions the majority of metalfags hold about the genre – yet thats what our mighty lord and father who art in last.fm hath pronounced. The album, a solid 70 minutes in length, gently and majestically floats between ambient sections, guitar based drone work and piano recitals. Heavily reminiscent of Paysage d’hiver and the more drawn out pieces from Darkspace, the guitar reverberations demonstrate an excellent capacity for creating and maintaining atmosphere and magnanimity. Production values and vocal effects much like Wintherr conjurs and while the feel is funeral doom through and through, the execution and production are decidedly unique and foreign to the genre in question. There is enough in way of instrumentation to keep your interest up track by track, listen to this at max volume for best results and you’ll be greeted by new layers within the humdrum of drone. One of the few releases I can happily sit through from beginning to end that clocks in at well over an hour and perhaps the only funeral doom release I have come across that I want to share with the entire world. The release is well worth picking up as I’m sure your laptop speakers pale in comparison to your stand alone CD/cassette player, its the kind of release you have to purchase to get the true feel for.

Purchase

You'll find me in the vast wilderness of British Columbia, talking metal at LURKER, or working in publishing and front-end web/eBook development.

7 Comments

  • Reply April 7, 2010

    Anonymous

    You're forgetting Nortt here.

  • Reply April 7, 2010

    Bile

    You know, you're absolutely right. Expect a Nortt post soon! Fucking killer.

  • Reply April 7, 2010

    excellentsword

    Have to hear this now.

  • Reply April 9, 2010

    Anonymous

    Cool! I have a thing for the Galgenfrist album. Now that is a nice vinyl release.

  • Reply April 14, 2010

    Anonymous

    Greetings! I feel that I should say voice my opinion regarding Austerity after my comment regarding Nortt, I wasn't exactly being constructive in my criticism. Anywhoodles. Parts of this album are seriously great, it seems to just go on forever. Overall an excellent release, even if it dips in quality here and there. Nice blog. Keep trucking. More filth!

  • Reply October 23, 2011

    Brother Humbler

    Thank you so much for the review! I’m honored by your words on my work. Brother Humbler

  • Reply July 19, 2013

    Brother Humbler

    Split 7″ Austerity / Black Temple Below out now. Here is the music: http://blacktemplebelow.bandcamp.com/

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