Out of all Gillman albums, ‘Inevitable‘ is the one I think deserves to be talked about more. It does seem to be more difficult to obtain than some of Gillman’s classic albums, but apart from the excellent closing track ‘María Lionza’, it isn’t all that well-represented on Gillman’s live sets either. And that’s a shame, because in my opinion, ‘Escalofrío‘ (1994) is the only Gillman album that surpasses it in terms of overall songwriting quality. It’s largely cut from the same cloth, with crushing riffs, soaring vocals, and lyrics about – mostly – Latin-American legends, myths and folklore defining the album.

Ever since singer Paul Gillman started working with guitarist Facundo Coral, the band found a winning combination of modern, heavy riff work inspired by the likes of Pantera and Machine Head with Gillman’s clear, powerful traditional heavy metal singing style. By the time ‘Inevitable’ was written, Coral had already moved back to his native Argentina, and in his stead, Sergio Sanchez appears on the album. Like Coral before him, Sanchez has a talent for writing riffs that are simultaneously heavy and catchy, with an ever so slightly more melodic thrash metal approach that greatly enhances the songwriting.

Apart from Gillman’s previous two studio albums, the band I am actually reminded of most when listening to ‘Inevitable’ is Saber Tiger. The way the modern, fairly aggressive riffs and the passionate clean lead vocals interact feels somewhat similar to the work of the Japanese veterans, though ‘Inevitable’ is a bit more straightforward compositionally. The comparison is especially evident when wide chords enter the picture, like they do on the amazing ‘No Tendrán Cuartel’, which even has a subtle progressive edge to it. On the other hand, the slower grinder ‘El Ángel Guardián’ has the most pronounced Sabbath-isms in Gilllman history.

My personal favorite on the album is ‘La Fuerza de la Unión’. It is built on a handful of simple, but brutally effective mid-tempo riffs, and I love how the song opens up in its powerful chorus. It has an incredible solo section as well. ‘El Árbol de la Vida’ is the perfect opener for the album, as it is a strong, uncomplicated stomper with a great chorus that occasionally brings very early Iron Maiden to mind, albeit more aggressive. ‘Vanderdecker’ has some of the best riffs on the album, as well as an exquisitely aggressive vocal performance by Paul Gillman.

But really, ‘Inevitable’ is such a consistently good album that every song is worth hearing. Ultimately, the only thing that could have improved it even further was tightening up a few of the drum fills, but that really only becomes evident if you pay close attention to minute details. ‘Inevitable’ really feels like a logical evolution from the fantastic sound the band found on ‘Escalofrío‘ and ‘Cuauhtemoc‘ (2003). While it isn’t quite held in the same regard as those two albums, it absolutely deserves to be. Not many albums succeed at finding the middle ground between traditional and contemporary heavy metal as well as Gillman does here.

Recommended tracks: ‘La Fuerza de la Unión’, ‘No Tendrán Cuartel’, ‘María Lionza’