Hyper Martyrium

This is the Centvrion’s album I like the most because it has inside a great load of thrash metal influences that come along with the always present speed/power ones. The following Non Plus Ultra would have been too power metal for my tastes but this one can easily give us some stuff to enjoy, at least if you are into this kind of music.

So, we start with the strange, full of blast beats intro on a carpet of epic/dark sounds that end in an explosion for the beginning to the best track of the album, “Deflagration of Violence”. The bass drum is heavily utilized and pounding, conserving the speed during a great part of the song. The production is extremely clear and powerful and you can hear the instruments very well, from the bass ‘till the guitars. The vocals are powerful with the perfect blend of screams ala UDO or sometimes ala Rob Halford with some growls intermezzos. They are strange but not bad at all.

The solos are quite simple but well done and on the title track the power of the rhythmic guitars explodes in a mixture of fast up tempo and groove parts. This time the power is perfectly expressed also during the refrain with the constant mix of different kinds of vocals that anyway don’t result annoying. You can really hear the group’s energy in these two tracks. They are devastating. The lyrics are always about the past times, talking about the Roman Empire for the great part, being the group from Rome.

The speed metal influences go hand in hand with thrash metal and a hint of death metal when the tempo is faster and full of growl vocals. This vocals change could result a bit hard to appreciate to the greatest part of the listeners but I think that, when it’s not invading, is good to change the atmosphere and fill it with gloom parts. They are in good contrast with the more melodic solos and the speed/thrash parts. “Katerpillar” is heavily Judas Priest inspired with lots of falsetto parts and slow, heavy tempo parts. The arpeggios give more obscurity to this song.

“Monolithic Triumphator” is a title that reflects perfectly the style of its music. We can find devastating palm muting parts and incredible dynamic structures where the solos are perfectly stuck in the various stop and go and sudden up tempo restarts by the drums. “Into the Arena” and “Stormfront Vanguard” have fast but extremely catchy riffs that sum up every influence in this CD. The bass drum is relentless and the riffs follow the same speed of execution. “Call Of Blood” is more epic with massive heavy sounds and dark lead guitars lines.

The great cover of “Riding on the Wind” of Judas Priest ends this very good album to recommend to those who search for good, heavy music and perfect blend of power/speed/thrash metal. It’s hard to find something like this album for the mix of these genres, especially in Italy. This band, on this album, is all power. Give it a chance.

Be careful what you wish for, I guess. All of us who complain about the glut of the sappy Italian power metal market need to listen to Centvrion to remind ourselves that sometimes formulaic is good. Sure, it’s “different” from a lot of stuff in that it has a much darker edge, bordering on thrash-lite at times. Actually, when all is said and done the music is enjoyable. Unfortunately, any positives on this thing aren’t just outweighed by the negatives, they’re positively crushed to pieces by the one glaring problem – the vocals.

Seriously, the four non-singing members of this band must not have access to the Internet. If they did, they surely would have stumbled across any number of reviews which, just as I’m doing here, explain how terribly everything is ruined by the singer. For Centvrion’s now four album discography this has been the case. Why these guys haven’t kicked Quintaba out of the band, or at least brought in a new singer, is beyond me. If Quintaba’s the main man, I have no idea why these guys haven’t just up and quit. I probably would have long ago.

The problem is that apparently Quintaba wants to come off as this sort of raging madman of a singer with an incredibly powerful voice. Well forget it. The man is simply terrible, ruining what is otherwise a decent album. The Centvrion website speaks of the great reviews these guys have gotten worldwide. I wonder what their sources were, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Centvrion review that doesn’t in some way say that Qunitaba all but ruins the whole thing. Some metal can be good in spite of poor vocal work. Not here – Quintaba’s voice is up-front and in your face, a none-too-pleasant experience if you ask me or a lot of other reviewers.

With such wretched vocals there is little point in discussing anything else beyond what was mentioned above. Decent production, solid guitar-work, busy but tight drumming – as I’ve stated numerous times, not a bad album musically. With a different singer we’d have something. Until the band dumps Quintaba, however, I wouldn’t bother with Centvrion. Proceed with great caution.