Review: Inferno – The Anthropic Sophisms (On the Heights of Despair)

Review by Jeger

Inferno – The Anthropic Sophisms (On the Heights of Despair)

Record Label: Debemur Morti Productions

Year: 2026

Rating: 10/10

There are Occult-driven Black Metal bands where – if you study their discography – you can literally track the collective’s spiritual growth, or in some cases, their transformation as each album marks an evolutionary progression that generally begins with Satanism/anti-Christian themes and develops into something much more profound later on as the unit continues to explore through ritual and esoteric practices, not just the inner workings of the great Science of Occultism, but also the intellectual realm of Philosophy and the transformative nature of Mysticism.

Inferno is a Czech Avant-Garde Black Metal outfit whose spiritual/intellectual/musical capacities have developed to the point of Gnosis. What so humbly began once upon a Pagan’s spell back in 1995 has become something transcendent of even the furthest Blut Aus Nord regions of Black Metal astonishment. Something happened between the years 2009 and 2013. Some kind of existential realization? Perhaps some kind of existential meltdown… Either way, it was with the release of 2013’s “Omniabsence Filled by His Greatness” that Inferno’s music would take a Quantum Leap into the sphere of real visionary genre development. Now, 14 years later, Inferno has once again redefined the very nature of Black Metal with an all new LP, “The Anthropic Sophisms (On the Height of Despair)”, released on July 17 via Debemur Morti Productions.

Inferno

Somewhere between where the depths of despair and the sheer bluffs of panic divide, you’ll find yourself lost as the opening track, “Fission of the Soul” begins to slowly but ever-so assuredly rape your mood. Close your eyes and allow for the frequencies to manipulate your brainwaves into a state of heightened awareness. This is your escape. The time has come for you to redefine the nature of your relationship with reality if only for 40 minutes. The following track, “Dekranos Katexochen – Mých Smrtí Je Bezpočet, Mých Nemocí Mnoho” – a Funeral Doom-paced descent into some kind of dreadful hypnotic state like being locked in an involuntary K-Hole as bewildering siren-like guitar effects resonate into an atmosphere that becomes more overwhelming with each passing second. Driven by steady-as-a-bludgeoning rhythms and sending shivers up your spine are the ghostly vocalizations.

An experiment in sound. There’s really something to these frequencies and like mad scientists, Inferno have evidently been during the musical process, but what of the transcendent nature of it? Gnosis, remember? A higher state of consciousness EARNED through relentless practice and personal development. A Black Metal album that pushes the limits of what is already the most versatile genre of Extreme Metal on both thematic and compositional fronts.

Am I stuck in a quasi-futuristic version of Silent Hill? Creeped the fuck out? That’s a Roger. Terrified? Maybe… But lost in this thing all the same. Cadences race like pre-infarction arrhythmia just before a grande slowing of the tempo takes hold as the final minutes of the sanity-seeping “With Raving Mouths they Utter Things Mirthless, Unadorned and Unperfumed” unfold. By the time the epic closing track, “Circulus Vitiosus Deus – the Infinity Ravages All”, begins to play, you’ll feel like you’ve been through some kind of cerebral Hamburger Hill… But in the best way possible. I’ve been listening to this record off and on for most of the day and there are no shortage of new memories to be made upon each listen. BM for willful hypnosis and perhaps a new outlook on something dire. What started as a simpler project powered by innovative Black Metal musicians is now a gathering of awakened ones whose music has taken on all new meaning. At least it feels that way. To the trueness of genuine Black Metal ingenuity! To Inferno…