Centvrion - Invulnerable

*=Staff's pick	The Forge Virtus Man Of Tradition Procreation To High* Invulnerable Standing On The Ruins* New Freedom Eternal Return Riding The Tiger Soul Deliverance* Transcendence*

Genre	Power Metal	Germano Quintaba	Vocals
Tracks	11	Fabio Monti	Guitar
Runningtime	50 Min.	Luciano Monti	Guitar
Label	Dragonheart	Gianluca Mandolesi	Bass
Release	11 Nov. 2005	Emanuele Beccarcece	Drums
Country	Italy	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Primal Fear, Metalium, Rhapsody

Centvrion, the heir of Roman legionaries, seems very promising at first. The first impression that strikes me is that this is what Metalium's latest album should have sounded like. It's fast, hard and yet melodic. The riff in Virtus hits the perfect tone. But after a while the voice of Germano Quintaba becomes almost as annoying as Henning Basses (in the band mentioned), though still more varied. Also some of the songs, like Man Of Tradition and the title track, have a tendency to be too quickly worn out. A couple of songs later Centvrion sounds more like old Gamma Ray, with Ralf Sheepers on vocals, as in Procreation To High. Still I'm quite satisfied.

The pompous ballad Standing On The Ruins is one of the highlights. But in New Freedom you can't keep yourself from wondering, what's the point with the constant high pitch howling that Quintaba practises? It is even worse than the usual Kiske-complex many power metal singers seem to have. Rob Halford on helium! A song like Riding The Tiger actually could have been a rather catchy one with a more relaxed singer. Now you can hardly recognise the title in Quintaba's screaming. Anyway, the whole creation is saved a bit with the finish. Soul Deliverance is a classic Priest-rocker on heavy fuel, Transcendence a tear-teasing ballad.

With Quintabas voice lingering on, as yet another eternal tone in my already damaged ears, I will try to set the grades for this one. It must get some points for being power metal with some actual butt-kicking power. It has some great metal songs, no doubt. But still I can hardly manage to listen to the whole record without feeling pain ringing in my head. That's quite a big con.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
6	4	6

Summary
5 chalices of 10 - David