Itnuveth "Ananké" CD

Sixth album of this Pagan Black Metal band with folk influences.

Spain's Itnuveth have returned with a new recording which continues the Pagan Black metal style of previous releases and this is their 2021 work. I doubt I will ever tire of revisiting bands over the years as they continue to grow and refine their craft as I still explore the depths of what metal has to offer at my own pace, and it’s almost like returning to home, in a way, when a band I’ve been following for years releases new material no matter at what pace that may happen. Itnuveth has long been an act that I have loved following ever since hearing their debut album seven years ago, and it’s absolutely bewildering to see how far they’ve come. On their sixth full-length effort, it would be understandable to expect Itnuveth to have a substantial drop in quality at this point, but the reality could not be anymore surprisingly far from the truth. It wouldn’t be crazy for any person to expect Itnuveth to have undergone some sort of substantial change since their inception since six full-length albums and a little more in the way of an EP and a split, even a change in style would be expected from any band after such a time. Yet, Itnuveth’s vision through their performances has remained all but consistent since the beginning in more ways than one with “Ananké” being the latest of that trend. Their blend of black and folk metal makes for one of the purest visions of anything that could be called “viking metal” but I can’t help but feel like Itnuveth falls just outside such a classification, and I could honestly care less about that given their quality and consistency up to their point with everything from the cover art to the vocal performances to the evolving integration of folk-centered interludes make “Ananké” a reprieve from vicious seas that fans new and old will be delighted to see provided by Itnuveth. It’s more often than not that a relatively “more of the same” breed of album is something that can easily put fans to asleep after enough times, yet I cannot help but find myself still enthralled by Itnuveth’s sound. While “Ananké” has a much more patient pace in its first album that feels as though it’s taking its time, it’s the second half where things ramp up in every department to make the album as a whole a pretty damn well-rounded experience that invites the listener for multiple repeat listens in order to really soak up everything that the work has to offer as well as to really explore all that Itnuveth has to offer at this point in their run that is at a much higher point that I don’t think many of us would’ve expected to see when this band first came up the scene seven years ago. Yet, six albums later, I cannot help but find myself wondering how it could’ve turned out any differently for Itnuveth with their talent and passion being evident since the beginning, and with a formula that is all but immensely potent, what else should we have expected? Listening to “Ananké” I really do feel like I’m coming back home in a way with every Itnuveth performance since the beginning always being an occasion that I simply cannot pass up, and I still cannot help but find myself being all but enamored by what this Spanish act has crafted yet again here. It may not be my favorite from the band nor anything to really go crazy over, but it’s with the very whole of “Ananké” that any fan of this style is sure to have an immensely good time for it is something you’ll be hard-pressed to find elsewhere in such a competent fashion paired with talent and execution that cannot be denied.

Official promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...