INANNA

One of the most popular and accomplished death metal bands to emerge from Chile, INANNA formed in Santiago in the year 2000 and slowly but surely emerged from the metal underground as one of South America's most enduring contributions to extreme metal. Named after the ancient Mesopotamian goddess associated with war, sex, desire, fertility and power, INANNA indeed has delivered a powerful war-like style of modern death metal that found its own fertility in how it combined various strains of old school death metal with the more modern varieties of the genre and made something all their own.

Although the band has been around for a quarter of a century now, INANNA has only released three albums to date with the debut CONVERGING AGES being released in 2008. Like many death metal acts INANNA related a couple demos with one presciently titled "Ascend From The Underworld" which found them hitting the ground running on their fully developed 2008 masterwork. The band has gone through a few lineup changes but basically there is a pre-album lineup, the lineup of the first two albums and yet another for the band's return from a hiatus that lasted ten years. On this release the band features Diego Itabaca (electric and acoustic guitars), Carlos Fuentes (electric and acoustic guitars), Max Neira (bass, lead vocals) and Felipa Zará (drums).

CONVERGING AGES is a powerful modern mix of death metal styles that have emerged since the genre debuted in the 1980s. Forged from the roots of the old school varieties that brought us the filth and grime of the raw underground 80s, INANNA used that as the template and crafted its own unique mix that adopted the progressive meanderings of Opeth and the progressive and space rock sounds of 70s progressive rock, similar to what Blood Incantation would unleash with its 2019 classic "Hidden History Of The Human Race." Add to that the band infused moments of tech death into its tapestry while also finding just enough melodic death metal moments to keep it all accessible. The jangly guitar tones and timbres add a touch of disso-death and the long meandering jamming sessions add a touch of improvisation in the soloing. Add to that some veritable moments of downtime with acoustic passages that drift off to space and it's fair to say that INANNA was quite innovative in taking death metal into the space age.

While compared most to Mexico's The Chasm, to my ears INANNA sounds like the death metal equivalent to America's Vektor with long progressive twists and turns and lengthy playtimes that allow unexpected musical developments to evolve. The softer touches specifically remind me of Vektor's last album "Terminal Redux" however it should be remembered that INANNA released CONVERGING AGESS eight years prior making this Chilean band one of the pioneers of the entire space rock-tinged extreme metal camp. The Vektor companions also ring true with moments where the band sounds much more like a trash metal band with galloping riffs out of the Sadus playbook however you're only a few growly vocal motifs away from bringing things back to the death metal camp. The musicians are well-seasoned and at the top of their game which couple with the creative fortitude displayed on CONVERGING AGES makes this debut a gem of the modern death metal world indeed.

INANNA delivers a near perfect progressive death metal extravaganza fueled by Lovecraftian themes, tales of Cthulhu and war-fueled historical references. What the band lacks in quantity of releases more than makes up for in the quality unleashed on each release. Rightfully considered one of if not the best metal album to emerge from Chile, INANNA somehow forged the connection to the world of the old school death metal variations without sounding retro and rather became an inspiration of how to retain some of the lost aspects that had been relinquished by many bands that forged ahead into the world of tech death which effectively created a rather distinct new genre in its own right. Somewhat of a latecomer to the rest of the world, INANNA has finally been discovered and finding its rightful place in the high ranks of top notch modern death metal.

4.5 rounded down