CENTVRION – Invulnerable

The Italian old-school quintet of Centvrion – why this name is spelled with the artistic ”v” instead of the more old-fashioned ”u” in the middle is a mystery – are back with their fourth studio effort, and for those of you who’re familiar with the previous three, this is, not surprisingly, very much the same thing as in the past. The music is Preusser-Metal at it’s most traditional, and definitely not everyone’s horn o’ beer.

The main problem with this album is that the songs sounds way too much the same through and through. Then it is no surprise that three of the songs that stand out the most in terms of quality are also those that separate themselves most from the rest musically – the heavy, thumping, title-track and the melodic and epic “Eternal Return,” which features a cool drum intro, groove, and a powerful chorus, are two examples, along with the emotional and powerful power-ballad “Transcendence.” The latter is definitely not your usual Bon Jovi soap bar, but has raw and unpolished charm en masse and great fist-in-the-air potential.

The trio that follows a short intro – “Virtus,” “Man of Tradition,” and “Procreation to High” (whatever that may ever mean) – all feature some punchy riffing, and the musicianship is decent throughout, although neither the guitar duo of brothers Fabio and Luciano Monti, bass player Gianluca Mandolesi, nor drummer Emanuele Beccacece exceed what one should expect from an aspiring band in this genre.

Germano Quintaba’s vocals, on the other hand, are very much a love/hate affair. His Henning Basse-meets-Gerrit Mütz voice is not for the faint-hearted, and those preferring a controlled, well-trained voice with moderate vibrato and good tone control should definitely look elsewhere. The leather/nails/beer-in-the-hair-digging-crowd could, on the other hand, easily fall in love with the guy.

This last sentence pretty much sums up the album too… this is not in any way a musical revolution, but it’s a decent piece of to-the-bone Heavy Metal. The band should work on their songwriting as well as perfecting their musical skills (within the genre, this is not a cry for Steve Vai’isms), but they have a good portion of charm, and in a small, sweaty club, this could work very well.