Ante-Inferno – Death’s Soliloquoy [Things You Might Have Missed 2024]

That was one hell of a November 22nd this year, huh? We had new releases from bands like Múr and Panzerfaust, blog favorites Fellowship and Defeated Sanity, and even the industry titans Opeth. Yes, the metal community ate quite well that day—so well that certain releases might slip through the cracks, such as Death’s Soliloquoy, the third full-length by English four-piece black metal act Ante-Inferno. But I refuse to allow Death’s Soliloquoy to be overshadowed because Ante-Inferno have made one of the most compelling and devastating releases of the year.

Ante-Inferno play a sort of misanthropic atmospheric black metal that blends the biting chill of second-wave black metal with an atmospheric, beautiful melodic clarity. The evocatively titled opener, “The Cavernous Blackness of Night,” reveals the two sides of Death’s Soliloquoy’s coin. The first half of the song wallows in an atmosphere of dissonance through aggressive, sawing guitars that grind out a macabre melody, before almost exactly halfway through, the song shifts gears into a more pronounced melancholic beauty. The gnashing tremolos become gentler, but still vital, as the melody grows clearer and stronger. “Cold. Tenebrous. Evil.” delves deeper into the dissonance, while “No Light till Life’s End” leans further towards the side of melody without sacrificing aggression, but both shades of Ante-Inferno are omnipresent and crucial. The stellar production greatly helps this contrast work. The rhythm guitars vibrate with a wintry second-wave buzz, and the atmospheric side is absorbing and dense. The vocals, which range from distant, crestfallen shrieks to hoarse shouts, come from the primary songwriter Kai. Death’s Soliloquoy is inspired by Kai’s own experiences of depression and hopelessness, and her existential misery is felt in every word.

Death’s Soliloquy by Ante-Inferno

That misery is the lifeblood of Death’s Soliloquoy, as the whole album radiates the same black light of sorrow as Kai’s vocals. The shorter tracks (“Cold. Tenebrous. Evil,” No Light till Life’s End”) are aggressive and full of emotion, but the real impact of Death’s Soliloquoy is felt in the longer tracks. The bleak riffs of “The Cavernous Blackness of Night” and “Towards Asphyxiating Darkness” evolve slowly and frequently return, like a lingering sadness that’s impossible to break away from. The subtly repetitive nature of the longer songs, paired with their length, might turn away some less patient listeners, but I think this approach is to the music’s benefit. Across the length of the album, a crushing, hypnotic weight sets in as the density and intensity of the music marches on with a suffocating constancy, and Ante-Inferno iterates upon their riffs and ideas enough to keep the energy high and the pace from dragging. Everything that comprises the nature of Death’s Soliloquoy collides in the genuinely sublime “An Axe. A Broadsword. A Bullet.” Here, dissonance has been cast aside for an assault of riffs that burn with a cold fury, while the melodies, almost crystalline in their clarity, carve a path through the indifferent noise. It commands your attention with paramount urgency, and like Death’s Soliloquoy as a whole, is hopelessly, heartbreakingly bleak.

Ante-Inferno have crafted an incredible piece of atmospheric black metal that, for my money, is the best release to come from this historic November 22nd. It’s possible that Death’s Soliloquoy may take some time to fully sink in. I surprise myself by admitting that even I was unimpressed on my first listen, before the slow riff and anguished scream at about 4:55 into “An Axe. A Broadsword. A Bullet.” moved me in such a way that the full album was re-framed in my mind, and now, to this day, every listen is better than the last. Death’s Soliloquoy is everything I love about black metal—it’s heavy, harrowing, and honest.

Tracks to Check Out: “The Cavernous Blackness of Night,” “Cold. Tenebrous. Evil,” “An Axe. A Broadsword. A Bullet.”

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