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Record CollectorJun 12, 2026Inferno is, in the least-predictable, most ripe-for-discovery manner imaginable, more of the same. Across 18 tracks which run to exactly 70 minutes, the duo's sonic signature is gloriously intact. [Jul 2026, p.102]
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May 26, 2026It’s an incredible journey – one of their most evocative, ambitious and rewarding yet.
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Jun 4, 2026Inferno may not possess the immediate aesthetic singularity of their other records, but with repeat plays it reveals itself as one of the richest and most spiritually fascinating ones they’ve ever made.
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May 29, 2026There’s a spring in the step of Inferno that places it as the (*deep breath*) pinnacle of their output to date.
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May 29, 2026Inferno is a comeback album that sounds perfectly conceptualized, live and alluring.
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UncutMay 26, 2026A brilliant album that doubles down on Boards of Canada's core strengths and finds room to move their music forward. [Jun 2026, p.20]
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May 26, 2026Thirteen years was a long time to wait. ‘Inferno’ makes every one of them feel worthwhile.
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May 28, 2026The occult themes and enigmatic samples would be irrelevant if the experience of listening to Inferno weren’t so scintillating. But the elevated subject matter seems to have animated Eoin and Sandison, too; everywhere you listen, strange and thrilling things are afoot.
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The WireJun 16, 2026Whatever its message, Inferno is heavy, unsettling and as compelling as anything they've made before. [Jul 2026, p.52]
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MojoJun 16, 2026If this is the last broadcast from BOC it is one that finally feels fully attuned to the queasy nightmare of the present as opposed to the cloudland sanctuary of the past. [Aug 2026, p.85]
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Jun 2, 2026The environs of Inferno are lush, rich, and cinematic — they go past genres as well as embodying them.
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Jun 1, 2026There are no answers here, but if the apocalypse rocks up in the near future, we’ve got ourselves one Hell of a soundtrack.
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May 29, 2026The ever-increasing sonic fidelity of the BoC sound has proven contentious, but it is precisely Inferno’s depth and hi-fi clarity that allows the album’s gods their fullest refulgence.
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May 29, 2026An album that demands and rewards close listening, Inferno remains true to the world Boards of Canada have created while engaging with the world at large.
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May 26, 2026It's the darkest and most direct music ever issued under the Boards of Canada seal, a bold swing for an artist whose prettier early formula still inspires wan imitation to this day.
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May 26, 2026Inferno may the wonkiest and most unnerving album from the duo, not uniformly menacing, but one undoubtedly apt for the current climate in its restless energy. Hope may be in short supply, but at least we've got a brilliant soundtrack for the apocalypse.
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May 26, 2026"Does Inferno live up to the hype?" Thankfully, it unequivocally does.
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May 29, 2026When you notice how they relate their music to loftier concepts such as time, religion, and the origins of the universe as we know it, Inferno connects on a much deeper level.
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Jun 4, 2026Though the album is consistent in its moody menace, it also consistently charts too-familiar territory.
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May 26, 2026There are updates to core BOC sounds, such as the satisfyingly fat synthwave lines that strafe across the arrangements of Arena Americanada and Hydrogen Helium Lithium Leviathan. But the beats on those tracks, along with so many others here, are wretchedly pedestrian, plodding along in dreary, funkless steps.