Ante Inferno - Antediluvian Dreamscapes

Ante-Inferno's Intricate Edifice Rises (Early Track Premiere)


England’s cathedrals are deceptive. From within, delicate stone flowers bloom upward and support vast mosaics of leaded glass. From without, they can appear almost fortress-like in their solidity and timelessness. Closer inspection of English Gothic architecture, however, reveals an intricate system of supports that depend upon one another for strength.

So it is with Ante-Inferno‘s new LP, Antediluvian Dreamscapes, due out May 13th via Vendetta Records. A classic serving of black metal on first glance, the album is an intricate piece of work that hangs together using a strong foundation of rhythm, pillars of bass, flying-buttress riffs, and imperious vocals that manage, by turns, grace and solidity in ways both old heads and black-metal newcomers ought to appreciate. Perhaps most surprisingly, the band managed some of what appear to be extremely precise tracks through an improvisatory composition process.

We’re here today with an early premiere of the record’s penultimate track. Like other songs on Antediluvian Dreamscapes, “Beyond the Immemorial Veil” is a projection of black-metal power that speaks to the band’s craftsmanship. Compared to 2020’s Fane, Antediluvian Dreamscapes eschews atmospherics in favor of flawless execution. Each song varies in tempo and approach yet remains part of the whole. Like chapels and crypts within a cathedral, the record’s songs reveal different yet essential parts of the edifice.

The band is apparently able to flawlessly execute on the fly. “Beyond the Immemorial Veil” was the product of spur-of-the-moment improvisation. Like medieval builders erecting structures of immense complexity without the benefit of so much as a hard hat, Ante-Inferno has followed their collective intuition to one of the most blistering tracks on an already-unsparing LP. This is clearly a group that knows itself well. “Beyond the Immemorial Veil” weaves a hypnotizing spell, a last lofty excursion before the record’s burly final track.

Behold “Beyond the Immemorial Veil” for yourself below.

Says the band:

The only track on the album to have been entirely improvised in the moment, “Beyond the Immemorial Veil,” with its free-form composition and delirium-inducing sonic explorations, serves as a fitting realization of its lyrical themes.

Bodiless, half-lost in a nightmarish realm that flitters between the distant future and the dark past, we find ourselves vomited forth into an ancient and unrecognizable world. From that vantage point, we witness the birth of a modern age that can offer us nothing but enslavement and horror. Forever lost beyond the veil of time and immortality, all we can do is watch, and await the coming of the eschaton and the end of all life on earth.