Band:	Ante-Inferno
Album:	Death's Soliloquy
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	November 22, 2024
A review by:	AndyMetalFreak

01. The Cavernous Blackness Of Night
02. Towards Asphyxiating Darkness
03. Cold. Tenebrous. Evil
04. Into The Eternity Of Death
05. No Light Till Life's End
06. An Axe. A Broadsword. A Bullet
07. Thalassophobia

Black metal is often used as a way to express one's darkest and most desperate state of emotions. However, Death’s Soliloquy takes this to another level entirely.

Ante-Inferno is a UK-based black metal band formed in 2017 by guitarist/vocalist K.B. and drummer G.S. The band have 3 full-length albums under their belt, including this latest offering Death’s Soliloquy. Death’s Soliloquy is an ode to mental illness, death obsession, and suicidal despair. The theme explores one's darkest and most morbid thoughts, including depression, hopelessness, and self-destruction. The stunning cover art paints an accurate and vivid picture of the intolerable suffering, anguish, and despair you'll likely endure while listening to this album. The only way which you can be awoken from this restless nightmare is to delve further into its darkness, to where all thoughts, fears, and doubts must come to an end. This is the blackened emptiness of Death’s Soliloquy.

"The Cavernous Blackness of Night" and "Towards Asphyxiating Darkness" are two lengthy, repetitively structured songs (both being around the 9-minute mark) that start the album off in a miserable DSBM fashion. The dual tremolo riffs loop repeatedly with hypnotizing melodies driven by a furiously repetitive rhythm section. The stand-out feature, however, is K.B.'s vocals that shriek in such a horrifying and desperate manner. It's as if he wants you to experience a real sense of his own suffering. Following these two songs, the album starts to change. "Cold. Tenebrous. Evil" is much shorter than the two previous tracks (being less than 5 minutes in length) and has a typical ferocious traditional black approach. This merges "Into the Eternity of Death" that acts as a short haunting synth interlude, leading to "No Light till Life's End".

From here, the 2nd half of the album begins in a noticeably much less dark and certainly more melodic manner. It's as if, in this stage of the album, death finally has its grip on you as you feel yourself instead slipping away from the dark and into the light. "An Axe. A Broadsword. A Bullet" is a 14-minute wonderful epic, driven by a much greater range of melodies. Made up by a combination of styles from atmospheric black, DSBM, and dreamy blackgaze, this seems like a wonderful and liberating finale. The rhythm section here is strikingly more upbeat, the guitar leads are beautifully composed, and there's a soft-spoken word and acoustic passage which breaks the song up, before it gradually builds-up again in wonderful blackened melancholy.

Death’s Soliloquy seems to follow a concept where the beginning feels like you're trapped in the worst of nightmares, one which you can't escape. But, as the album progresses, it becomes a more tranquil and uplifting dream-like experience from which you wish to not escape. The production is superb as every element shines equally. The vocals are very powerful and not an ounce short of passion, but never once do they feel like they overpower the instrumentation. Yet, each instrumental element has an equal presence in the mix. The UK's black metal scene has certainly not been shy of passionate performances and stunning melancholic songwriting in 2024. Cistvaen, Winterfylleth, Wolvencrown, and Fellwarden have all pulled off some top quality albums, and now Ante-Inferno have pulled off another, surpassing the quality of all their previous offerings.