Avsky

Scorn

Moribund 2010

I'll admit I was fairly unimpressed by the last album from these Swedish black metallers, but I was wholly unprepared for how strong of an impact their new album would have on me.  A plodding, unmoving beat plunges the landscape into darkness as the opener, As the Mountains Collapse begins.  This falls away to reveal an icy blast of full force black metal riffing, that at times reminds me of Dark Medieval Times Satyricon.  Around the 5:35 mark the track moves with a decidedly morbid zeal, somewhat reminiscent of Worship Him era Samael.  A horrific peal of black thunder cracks the sky on No Compassion, No Regrets.  Rapidly shifting rhythms are cut by a blizzard of ice shards, slicing flesh with frenzied guitars.  The song is perhaps a little overlong but I can easily forgive that.  A deep morass of evilness opens up as the malicious main riff lays waste on Dead End.  An early Burzum style colors the riffing style of this track.  The Beyond is an instrumental of forlorn sparseness, painted by calm guitar and subtle drums.  A catchy and mesmerizing riff controls the albums final song, The Sickness Within.  As the tempo increases, more echoes of atmospheric Scandinavian black metal archetypes are thrust in for freezing devastation.  The track slows down for more Samael-ish creeping morbidity but with a Swedish twist.  Avsky have returned with an album that possess more variation and emotional depth than Malignant, yet is still just as darkened within its morbid core.  Scorn is an album of pitch-black evil that corrupts and mutilates all white-light entities within earshot.