Band:	Austere / Lyrinx
Album:	Only The Wind Remembers / Ending The Circle Of Life
Style:	Depressive black metal
Release date:	May 23, 2008
A review by:	Lucas

Austere
01. Towards The Great Unknown
02. Only The Wind Remembers

Lyrinx
03. No Failure In Suicide
04. Isolation

Since a couple of years the Depressive Black metal scene has expanded quicker than a woman pregnant from five overweight babies. This is because the threshold for the genre is very low: after a couple of months a bedroom DBM act feels 'mature' enough to release a couple of demos and ep's and does so. For this sole reason, I am always very hesitant when it comes to checking out new bands from this genre as they usually turn out to be dull and generic mid-era Burzum rip-offs. Though sometimes a band pops up which, although they often don't do too well in the originality department, has something worthwhile in their sound, something we can refer to as a 'spark' or 'emotion'.

Austere is the first band of this two-way split from Eerie Arts Records. "Towards The Great Unknown" and "Only The Wind Remembers" are the two tracks they give, and let me tell you that they are a good representation. Slow and tragic opening riffs are no surprise for the genre, but relatively fast-paced drums to accompany them are. And now that the subject is on the drums anyway, they will be a breath of fresh air for the hardcore DBM listener. It's hard to pinpoint it down exactly but he packs some surprising beats, though he never forgets to keep the trancelike atmosphere. Save for the clean chants in the background of "Only The Wind Remembers" all vocals are of the Burzum pained shriek variety. The distortion is fuzzy and almost warm and sweet, which always immediately reminds me of Velvet Cacoon's 'dieselharp' sound. Throw in a few Lurker Of Chalice-esque hollow acoustics and you're done for the day. Austere has definitely proven its worth with these two songs and they are for sure a band that the people of the DBM circle should follow.

Before this split I was already acquainted with Lyrinx and more in particular, the "Nihilistic Purity" demo. It was a good demo, though after a while the band lost me as a follower again, probably due to the lack of an original sound and the amazing quality to make up for the lack of originality. On this split the story is largely the same, once again the songs are good but not amazing and too much rooted in the mid-era Burzum sound to keep my attention longer than a week or two. Enjoyable, but not durable. They shall have to be content with being the "second best" on this split.

It is fair to presume that Austere will be making a name for themselves if they can keep up the quality on a next release. I know at least one person who will be sure to check it out when the time comes. As for Lyrinx, perhaps they will release a new split someday which crosses my path, but if not, they will probably sink in the grey oblivion of my amnesiac mind. Without a tear spilled, might I add.