I have always been impressed with Avsky, especially with their last release, Malignant. This black metal duo hailing from Dalama, Sweden has had much controversy because they are a new band, starting in 2002, and still sounding like traditional black metal. The band itself has had much praise, and also has had a lot of disapproval from many fans of the genre. I however am the former, as I love the sounds they create, even their highly unorganized first release, Mass Destruction.

I first heard this album on March 14th, when I first found out about the release, as it was delayed from January 10th. I got it as quick as I could, because the last album left me on the edge of my seat, grinning like the Cheshire cat - ear to ear. The first thing I noticed is the extremely long track lengths, with only one song (The Beyond - 3 minutes, 16 seconds) being under seven minutes. Now of course, this doesn't make a bad album, but for black metal, it can be a displeasure. I threw in the album and started my quest into the depths of the black hell known as Scorn.

Well, I can say that the opening track is a bit similar to Fuck Your Values, Fuck Your Beliefs, from their last album, Malignant. It was sort of redundant to listen to the same riff over and over for nearly ten fucking minutes, but hey, I liked it. The entire album had an atmosphere to it that is supremely enjoyable. However, I will say that many of the guitar riffs were used multiple times in the album, and those riffs themselves can be found on Malignant and Mass Destruction.

Setting those things aside, of course the vocals stayed the same from Malignant, being an ambient scream found in a lot of Depressive black metal, or even some Ambient black metal. I do enjoy AE's scream immensely, being that it is a fresh sound to the scene. Not only this, but it has a burzumatic feel without the Varg aspect to the music. It has a Dunkelheit sound, however doesn't get that polarization that Varg gives off. As we all know, black metal is selling out thanks to many bands coming to the forefront (Dimmu Borgir, Behemoth, Cradle of Filth...ect). It is good to hear an oldschool sounding black metal band that is trying to revive the scene.

Apart from the sound, the entire feel of the album was really good. It had a really dark atmosphere to it, which was probably what AE and TO were going for. Much of the sounds to the lyrics seemed to have an apocalyptic feel to it, especially on Scorn and As the Mountains Collide. For black metal, I will say this is one of the better releases of the 2005-2010 era. Especially counting that all Avsky's work has been released in this era. This is probably their best album and I'd reccomend it to anyone who likes oldschool stuff.