With every return, a new daemonic trait arises in ‘ready outward expression as Finland-based blackened death metal quartet PROSCRIPTION‘s second tome illustrates the revelation of heaven’s expiry, an afterlife reduced to apocalyptic rubble at a final stage of disintegration. A certain grey-shaded empyrean wrath courses through the band’s sophomore full-length album as ‘Desolate Divine‘ acts as both lineage and usurpation of past efforts in its dismal vision of lost solace, a freeing of delusion through atomization. Though the band’d impressed upon debut some years ago this reprisal offers a world-class blackened death metal experience in glorious high fidelity, a brutal and surreal experience void of filler and weaponized via its high-rate riffcraft.

Proscription formed circa 2017 as the main conductorial medium from musician Christbutcher beyond the death knell of Maveth and an unexpected final chapter from Excommunion. An unsettling alliance then formed between folks known for their time in Lantern, Sacrificium Carmen, and The Lifted Veil in realizing first an immediate promotional release (‘Promo 2017‘, 2017) which’d reflected the guitarist/vocalist’s oft Immolation-esque hand, a signature that’d eventually carry on within a debut LP (‘Conduit‘, 2020) during uncertain times. Since I’d been fairly detailed in recollecting the history of the artist and the path to that point within a favorable review for that first album I’d recommend revisiting my thoughts in full though any fan of Azarath, Dead Congregation or even Lvcifyre should appreciate the density of capture and dizzying rhythmic breadth of their first act. In approach of ‘Desolate Divine‘ I’d suggest that nothing comes easily to the listener within this lineage, that patience and an ear for many-layered diabolic death muse will be the only real path through the havoc found on this somewhat differently stated sequel.

If you’d found the previous album uneven, or, too focused on atmospheric mid-paced movements for effect the first half of ‘Desolate Divine‘ is mostly charged through at a rapid pace, deliberately snaking their riff-driven thousand guitar channeled furor through three imposing songs outright. Opener “Gleam of the Morning Star” is more brutal than expected as an entrance, a brief and hammered-out piece which calls to the diabolic rooting of Christbutcher‘s past as much as it speaks to mid-90’s black/death being taken to an arena-sized feat later that same decade (re: Polish and U.S. scenes.) Some of this is due to drummer Mikko Koskinen being somewhat unleashed across this record a bit more than the last but we also find a more comprehensive dual vocal style exercised throughout the album, as emphasized by the tumultuous and thrashing “Bleed the Whore Again” immediately afterward. The blood is flowing at this point but what Proscription does best will naturally take some time to develop over the course of the next few pieces.

The passage from thunderous rifle-fed barrage unto the less harried spectrum of gloomiest, demented spiritual exertion occurs somewhere within riotous clip of “Entreaty of the Very End”, an easing between calamitous brutality and a meandering ‘Unholy Cult‘-esque dread (beyond ~2 minutes in esp.) which is given a sheen of true brilliancy via leads from (now former) lead guitarist Cruciatus (Lantern). With the abysm in sight the cold bent which “The Midnight God” proposes up front stood out to me immediately as a cresting of the first wave, one of the more profound movements from Proscription on this record which echoes some of the irreverent motioning we’d found on ‘Conduit‘. I don’t know that I’d readily compare the effect of these two pieces to something like Ulcerate necessarily but there is an obsidian sleekness to the grooves which rise throughout each which feels deathly serious and chasmic in its resound. This’d been the portion of the record to solidify my initial interest and begin to delve into the nuance of these forms rather than roll with them.

The loudest slapped, most militant pieces on ‘Desolate Divine‘ are its most essential points of impact, the forces which characterize its flow and such, this isn’t only for the sake of brutal abandon but also the production values applied via a similar team of engineer (and new lead guitarist) Kalle Laanto @ Sonic Violence Studio and an expectedly enormous mix/master from Dave Otero @ Flatline Audio. Though Proscription didn’t strike me as the type of band to benefit from such a loud, polished capture on paper back in 2020 their severe, somewhat contemporary approach warrants the sheer volume on offer. The sound of the damned thing would strike me hardest around the mid-point via “Behold a Phosphorescent Dawn” in particular as one of the heavier clobbered (and overall best) pieces on the full listen that’d still manage to give their low end an enormous, imposing space to conquer within the mix.

The tireless brimstone-shot pummel of ‘Desolate Divine‘ arrives therein as the entirety of Side B heats toward the title track (“Desolate Divine”) another blazon-worthy standout which weaves surreal leads and rhythms into its deteriorating second half. The impact of the full listen and the spectacle of its sound design should’ve fully sunken in at that point and from there the only thing missing is a point of dramatic resolve beyond hailing-down Hell. The way out of decimated firmament comes via the wrung-out discord and abysm-charging rushes that introduce closer “The Great Deciever”, a slow-built stampede toward an unimpeded expanse which serves as an arresting endpoint for this equally wrathful and surreal death metal album. I’d normally avoid mentioning nigh every damned song on a full-length but this should be sign that there are no misses here as even the shorter pieces included within Proscription‘s designs serve the greater serpentine looping motion created by repeated listens. What’d appeared as potentially an average, appreciably zealous blackened death metal record now strikes me as prime nowadays death metal, a world-class standard from my point of view, and a record which far exceeds the potentiate-rich realms suggested by its predecessor. A very high recommendation.

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