After nearly a decade since their last album release, INFERION has returned with another record titled "Inequity." For those who are new to this American Extreme Metal band, INFERION formed in Miami, Florida in 1995, so they have been around for quite a long time.  Initially, the group played a form of Melodic Death Metal mixed with elements of Black Metal, otherwise known as Blackened Melodic Death.  However, over time, INFERION evolved their sound into simply Melodic Death Metal.  Between their inception and 2014, they released three studio albums: "Given to the Ground," "Firewar," and "The Desolate." After the release of their third album, the four-piece band seemed to have gone on hiatus from revealing new material until May 19th of this year, when they came out with "Inequity." Distributed by the American record label Horror Pain Gore Death Productions, this album consists of 10 tracks totalling up to slightly over 55 minutes, and each minute is worth an attentive ear.

The first track of "Inequity" is called "8 Minutes Ago," but don't let the title fool you: the song itself is only about 4 ½ minutes.  Duration aside, the track is a nice, fast, and heavy start to INFERION's fourth album.  The blast beats from Élan O'Neal's drumming are what gives the opening song its intensity.  As for the guitar riffs, while there is a hint of a melody in them, they sound more along the lines of old-fashioned Thrash/Death Metal than Melodic Death Metal.  In the next track, "Son of None," the reverse happens.  Élan O'Neal keeps his double bass going but without any blast beats, and the guitar riffs become more melodic over the course of the song, so the second track has more of a Melodic Death tune than its predecessor.  As for its successor "Grendel," the song incorporates a few elements of Black Metal, with Frank Gross and/or Nick Reyes using shrieking vocals instead of Death Metal-style growls to sing about summoning Grendel.  For those who have read the Old English poem "Beowulf," you probably remember that Grendel is a demonic, monstrous being descended from the biblical antagonist Cain.  Therefore, a song talking about summoning such an evil character definitely falls along the lines of Black Metal, making "Grendel" a Blackened Melodic Death track.  If anything, it's nice to see INFERION briefly go back to their roots.

About halfway through "Inequity," the fifth track "Grief Demands an Answer" mostly gives off a Groove Metal sound, with slow and heavy guitar riffs.  Unfortunately, the drum beats are also slow with no blast beats, despite frequent double bass kicks nonetheless.  The song then ends, and the band continues on with a 101-second-long instrumental track titled "The Young Sapling Never Bends." Rather than use typical heavy metal instruments such as guitars and drums, the band used acoustic instruments, including Nick Reyes on an udu and Élan O'Neal on a dulcimer.  The creativity on this short track definitely deserves some credit, but since it's quite out of place from the album's overall Melodic Death Metal, INFERION probably could have done without "The Young Sapling Never Bends" or used their usual instruments.  From the instrumental track onwards, we receive slightly longer songs than from the first half of the record.  The final song-"Blood Is Black in Moonlight"- is the longest on the entire album, with a length of 9 minutes and 5 seconds.  After remaining quite absent throughout the record, we finally hear more blast beats from Élan O'Neal (although they're short in duration).  The guitars remain melodic as expected alongside Frank Gross's grinding bass patterns, before dissolving into acoustic guitar chords for the approximately last quarter of the closing track.  And so ends INFERION's fourth and most recent album to date.

In conclusion, there is a lot that you'll hear happening on "Inequity." It's mainly Melodic Death Metal with hints of Black Metal and even some acoustic moments.  At times, the band's guitarists utilize heavily downtuned riffs that will appeal to the senses of Groove Metal fans.  I felt that the musicianship could've been greatly improved, if O'Neal used more blast beats in several of the songs and if the group scaled back the acoustic track "The Young Sapling Never Bends." On the other hand, the band just came out of a 9-year period without releasing any sort of records.  Therefore, it's probably best to be grateful for what they did give their fans: a heavy 55-minute Melodic Black/Death Metal album that won't disappoint overall.