ALBUM REVIEW: Proscription – Conduit

Finnish Blackened Death Metal horde PROSCRIPTION are back with a full length album to follow their 2017 demo. Out via Dark Descent Records on September 24th.

Eerie dissonance starts off the record with utmost discomfort and darkness, presumably to prepare us for unforgiving tension and destruction. Very early from such a haunting introduction it can be said this album will leave an impact, before even an ounce of Extreme Metal has been dropped on us. Convulsive riffs grind into life like a Lovecraftian monster warping out of the cosmos over a totally devastating drum performance. Drawn out growls accompany the instrumental onslaught which is as bestial as it is murky and dismally grotesque. The immaculately revolting songwriting is superb and the execution lives up to the complexity of the fragmented, psychotic blitz of total death. Daunting and blistering musicianship scolds us with the very abyssal darkness that the cover art portrays so gorgeously.

Dragging us through eldritch portals, this relentless, restless and ever-shifting monstrosity of Black-Death Metal magick is unwavering in its dominating display of revulsion. Crushing and with so much magnetising ferocity in the music, there is nothing quite like Proscription to compare them to but think Teitanblood, Ritual Necromancy or Lantern (with whom this band shares a guitarist) and you’ll be in the right ball park, sort of. The blackened edge adds so much dissonance and atmospheric prowess to a brutally savage Death Metal conjuration that balances occultist extremity with spectral apparitions from another realm. This is the sort of music that is not only supremely powerful as a juggernaut of monolithic Blackened Death Metal but also has a danger from a mystical and dark spirituality that is tangible when listening.

An ethereal and malignant force is present in these ritualistic conjurations that will not be easily shaken by those whom dare to listen to this ferocious slab of vitriol. At the heart of this music is an abhorrent embryo that pulsates with a seething malice, ready to be unleashed. Over the development of the record we see this spring into life as a truly unfathomable and disgusting yet resplendent being that captures such a unique vision perfectly. The murk of the production has enough clarity for this heavily nuanced morbidity to seep through the conquering soundscapes of utter dread with ease. There is nothing about this music that doesn’t contain an unaltered malevolence which is as creepy as the music itself. A truly haunting and remarkable piece of artwork from beyond that is absolutely one of a kind.

This is perhaps one of the greatest debut albums I have heard in recent years. Delivering pungent and tangibly dark Blackened Death Metal with plenty of nuance and extravagance while retaining a primal and bestial edge that scolds you from start to end with abyssal visions of warped demonic spectres. Pure ritualistic Extreme Metal at its best. -9/10