Towards Eternity

Metal is one genre where talent can spring up from just about ANYWHERE in the world.Cases in point, these men from Argentina that call themselves 'Auvernia'. They like to mix and match their music from the sound of it, with a basic progressive sound with lots of power metal, some black metal and even a bit of jazz and classical thrown in. Needless to say, such a variety of genres will immediately require a very strong songwriting and playing ability. In that aspect, Auvernia definitely don't fail to deliver.

The album starts with 'A New World is Born', a track that could even deter a few purist metal fans with its typical jet flanger-laden nu-metal chord staccato intro. But 2 measures later Auvernia's true colours almost blind the listener. The song surges into a full-on powerchord staccato attack with doomy bells being provided from the keyboard, all of it being blasted out on a 7/4 time-signature variant. But after 2 measures of THIS, the lead guitar enters the pudding with a haunting arpeggio harmonic to the rhythm. And just when you thought you could ease into this, the whole tune changes with a tremolo-picked, almost death metal style riff, accompanied by a furious keyboard shred. By the time the verse begins, the tune has changed again to a more groovy variation of its preceding tune.The rest of the song is just SO full of surprises. Power and black metal vocal strains, keys changing from symphonies to techno grooves and of course, the relentless fretwork and mind-warping time signatures.

And that was just the first song. The 2nd song 'A Little of Lust' is more power-metal driven, with lots of straight-out German style sections. Both these songs, and every other song as well, have a tremendously high level of technique, especially the bass sections. Bass player Leonardo can play a ridiculously fast riff and then SUDDENLY stop and change it to lilting melody. Drummer Juan Pablo Verni brings in the percussion brigade with all guns firing (almost literally). And the fact that vocalist Fernando can manage those dual vocals AND all that neo-classical soaked shredding together is HIGHLY commendable.

Other memorable songs on this album include they VERY powerful 'The Successor' and the cover tunes. The song starts with an EXTREMELY haunting keyboard riff that bleeds 'conspiracy' and 'treason' all over the listener's mind. The cover songs are quite interestingly chosen: 'Blue Blood' by X-Japan and 'The Show Must Go On' by Queen. The fact that they sang 'Blue Blood' in Japanese is highly commendable and they also managed a very epic rendition of Queen's classic tune.

Don't let the description 'Progressive Power Metal' on some sites give you the wrong impression; this album is not as straight-forward an example of that definition as a band like Symphony X is. These guys have continuously changing tunes, beats and scales. In fact, only those truly appreciative of music as an art will appreciate this album. Though this album definitely has those straight out epic sequences. So if you want an album that you think could help raise your intelligence level, definitely get this one. Its worth EVERY bit of currency.