Boards of Canada
Inferno
Warp
May 29, 2026 Web Exclusive
These are strange and weary times we live in, my friend. The return of Scottish duo Boards of Canada—Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin—after a 13-year hiatus sees the uncertain world we live in put under a microscope on their new album, Inferno. The 18-song album conjures up a mind altering blend of equal parts doom and salvation, focusing on the mysteries of the occult.
When the time for established order comes tumbling down it would without question be heralded by the second track on the album, “Prophecy At 1420 Mhz”—snarling drum and guitar breaks come alive against the backdrop of a probing synth and a looming vocal sample. Not that the sound of the apocalypse is anything new to these brothers, when they were last seen we were greeted with 2013’s Tomorrow’s Harvest—suitably named after a Utah doomsday preparation organisation. Inferno cements the typical associations we have come to expect from the duo, but the cryptic sound has been bolstered, resisting the urge to submerge itself in any graininess, instead opting for a sharper, lazer-focused sound.
Track three, “Hydrogen Helium Lithium Leviathan,” feels ethereal, almost transient with the drums in particular creating a haunting association of a towering robotic monster scanning for his next helpless target. “Father and Son” is abstract and absolutely impenetrable, a mediation on faith is mutated, creating an abrasive, yet somehow amusing sense of unease. “Somewhere Right Now in the Future” could have slotted in perfectly on 1998’s Music Has the Right to Children—a shimmering arpeggiating synth creates a sense of nervous calm amidst a host of tracks hell bent on producing the opposite effect.
Menacing indeed, as the pulsing sound of “Acts of Magic” fades into “Memory Death” with the startling sound of dismembered voices that sound like Boards of Canada have reached into the void to put the sound of ghosts onto an album.
Inferno is a gradual journey, and the sheer scope of these twisted visions is felt the further the album progresses, such as the case for “Into the Magic Land”—twitching and ebbing synth and guitar explorations progressing the album into its mystical second half. It’s in this new ground where the most volatile sounds are hiding, like the furthest depths of the ocean. “Blood in the Labyrinth” opens deceptively familiar, before the sound of a mysterious sitar lights up, sparking a further exploration of general unease.
Skirting around in the darkness, the next foray begins with “Deep Time”—a rare moment of tranquility subverted by the jittering sound of “Arena Americanada.” The cascading sound of “The Process” is like the proverbial doomsday clock announcement—you expect annihilation but the finality comes quietly, coated in melancholy as all the voices of the world blur into one against a somber instrumentation. While the brothers have undeniably painted a vivid picture of a world gone mad, it is the track “You Retreat in Time and Space” that makes a case for quiet optimism, not a feeling that stands out in many compositions by the duo but is present here nonetheless.
Inferno is yet another piece of the puzzle by the ever confounding Scottish brothers. A million questions are raised here and as time marches onwards you can be sure there will be attempts to unpack every vocal sample, every possible mystery. Inferno is a comeback album that sounds perfectly conceptualized, live and alluring. (www.boardsofcanada.com)
Author rating: 9/10
Average reader rating: 9/10
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