Ignacia Fernández has one of the most unlikely origin stories in extreme metal — the 28-year-old model crowned Miss World Chile 2025 is also the founder and growling frontwoman of Chilean progressive death metal band Decessus. In a new interview with Finland’s Chaoszine, she traced the path that took her from her parents’ record collection to the guttural vocals that made her a viral sensation.
Asked when she first encountered heavier music, Fernández recalled a childhood steadily gravitating toward louder sounds. “Yes, I do. Ever since I was very young, I loved music, all kinds of music. At my home, my parents used to listen to all sorts of music,” she said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “I liked them all, but my special interest was in rock music. But then when I started to grow up, I was feeling the need to listen to more heavier songs. So at the age of 11 or something, I found System of a Down, for example. So I started to go heavier. Oh, and before System of a Down, I found Guns N’ Roses, which was also rock, but it was a bit more energetic comparing to what my father used to listen most of the time. And then I found System of a Down. I love them… And ever since then, I started trying to find more heavy music until the first time I listened to distortion vocals, like death vocals. It was actually in Epica. The guitar player, Mark Jansen, does some harsh vocals, and I was very impressed. I really loved the sound, but it never came to my mind that I could also produce that sound. I was very young. I don’t know. I saw a man doing that. I was, like, ‘That’s so cool.’ But it never came to my mind I could also do it. Until at that same age, 11, 12 maybe, I saw a video, Arch Enemy ‘Nemesis‘ live in Japan, like the classic video, and that was the first time I saw a woman singing death metal, and I was really impressed — really impressed. And ever since, I was, like, ‘I want to do this.'”
The sight of a woman fronting a death metal band was the turning point. “I always wanted to do music. I never knew what kind of music or what to do, like [playing] an instrument or something. I never had an instrument at home. It wasn’t part of my daily life. So I never knew what I wanted to do, but I knew it was music. And when I listened the first time a woman singing [death metal] like that, I was, like, ‘Okay, this is what I wanna do,'” she explained.
Learning the technique, however, was anything but quick — and involved plenty of trial, error and worried looks from her mother. Asked whether she tried emulating Angela Gossow by screaming along to Arch Enemy songs, Fernández said: “Actually, at the beginning, I wasn’t listening much of Arch Enemy, even though it was the first time I listened to a woman [singing like that]. I was listening more other bands. I was trying to emulate the sound in my room. My mother probably was very scared — I don’t know — but I was trying, I was trying. I was failing a lot. I remember, with the computer, I was looking for information, how to do it. I was reading some stuff online, seeing some videos, but I never found a good video. But I was trying to pick different stuff from here and there to try to do it until I found the sound, but it took a while. It wasn’t a very fast process.”
Pressed on which artists she screamed along to early on, she pointed to another pioneering woman in the genre. “I have such bad memory. I really don’t know, but I always will remember The Agonist with Alissa White-Gluz. She was definitely one of my biggest inspirations. She is one of my biggest inspirations in music and in singing. So, yeah, definitely The Agonist. But, yeah, plenty more. I don’t really remember, to be honest.”
Decessus, she confirmed, is her first proper band — one she built from scratch after a difficult period away from music. “No, no, no. Well, when I developed the sound the first time, I then stopped for many years doing everything that I liked because of some personal things and not feeling very well, et cetera. So when I came back, ‘Okay, I will start singing again. I will start doing vocal lessons and then I will build my own band.’ And so I did. So I studied vocal lessons for two years, and in the meantime I built my band Decessus,” she said.
Her first time in a recording studio came under strange, pandemic-era circumstances. “It was so weird. I remember we were during COVID, COVID times. In Chile, it was just when the people could start going out again, but with some permits and for a few hours. And it was very difficult. And every studio was closed. So the guy who recorded me found a home, a place. He set up everything in there. I went with my mom and my sister. I was so scared. I didn’t know what to do. And, yeah, it was a very weird experience, but very cool. I remember it very, very well… I mean, yeah, of course, I was afraid. I was, like, ‘What am I doing? Will I do it good? I don’t know,’ blah, blah, blah. It was my first time in the studio. But then everything went very smooth, and I was feeling great, and the end result was great. I was happy. I was there for quite a few hours, and then I left home very, like, ‘I did it. I can start doing this. I achieved my first goal.’ Like, go to the studio. ‘Nice. What’s next?'” she recalled.
Her first show, by contrast, nearly didn’t happen — she came close to bolting before taking the stage. “It definitely was a learning experience. For example, the guys in my band, they have played together since they were, like, I don’t know, seven years, eight years. They studied at the same art school, and they had many bands and a lot of experience, but I had never been on a stage, and I was really afraid. I got very anxious, like, ‘Am I going to do this correctly? Am I going to mess up?’ [I was] afraid of the people and everything. Maybe it was a good thing we started in the pandemic because I had time to slowly [develop as a vocalist]. So I think that was nice for me, but definitely the first time we got on a stage, I was so bad. I mean, feeling like I really wanted to leave before going to the stage. I actually went out, went to a little park that was nearby, sat down with my bottle of water and was really planning and seeing how bad would it be if I just go home. I was going to do it. I was, like, damage control, you know?! Like, ‘How bad would it be? No, maybe it isn’t that bad. Okay, I’ll go home.’ I was so nervous. Then my best friend came walking. I never knew he was going to the show. And he saved the day. I was, like, ‘Okay, come on inside. Come inside.’ And then I did it. I was very nervous. I was shaking all the time, so I had to take the microphone with both hands so people wouldn’t notice,” Fernández said.
Despite the nerves, the night turned out to be a triumph. “It was [typical of] the first time, I think, for everyone. The first time is the most difficult, but it ended up being very nice. The place was full. We sold out the tickets. That was amazing. The people were so energetic. I remember that day in a very good way,” she added.
Fernández also revealed that Decessus‘ forthcoming album will feature a rare glimpse of her clean singing — something she’s approached cautiously. “The thing is that when I built the band, I always wanted it to be just screaming. That was my vision. I love bands that do both. I usually listen to a lot of bands that do both [style of] singing, but I don’t know why I just wanted to scream. But we have a few songs in the album, new album that is coming out, that I sing a little bit — just a little bit,” she said.
Notably, it’s the clean vocals, not the growls, that leave her feeling exposed. “Yeah, absolutely. Because it’s different. I mean, of course my screaming is my voice. I’m not using any kind of effect or whatever. It’s not my speaking voice, so it’s like my alter ego. But then if I sing clean vocals, it’s myself, and that makes me very nervous,” she explained.
Fernández went viral after performing a death metal song during the Miss World Chile semifinals, ultimately beating out 19 other finalists to claim the crown. She’s now set to represent Chile at the 75th Miss World 2026 in Vietnam, with the grand finale taking place on September 5, 2026. The forthcoming Decessus record follows her recent guest turn on Kamelot‘s single “Ashen World“, which paired her with the symphonic metal veterans on their album Dark Asylum.
