Invulnerable

Italy's Centvrion tries to step out of the horde of other common named bands by changing up the spelling a bit and by playing a great blend of power metal, thrash metal and traditional metal. Many factors of all three said subgenres can be found in their style of music; ranging from thrashy and crunchy riffs a la Iced Earth style to the almost Halford-esque high pitched vocals and epic double bass drumming mixed with the speedy guitars all make for a great hybrid. I take it a lot of influence is taken from Judas Priest as well as other classic metal gods, Savatage and Iron Maiden. The members of Centvrion are very talented musicians with the guitarists being brothers dueling with riffing and lead solo madness. Having brother guitarists probably helps the music giving more of a cohesive and fluid sound since they've worked and trained together for ages I presume.

The songs on their fourth full length, Invulnerable range from blasting speedsters that give you neck aches (Man of Tradition) to mid-tempo songs that blast your ears with high vocals and semi-technical guitar solos. I find myself enjoying the faster songs better where speed is a factor but also combining quite a bit of melody the same way other bands of this ilk, maybe Iced Earth over Agent Steel do. The drumming here is also tight and spot on with double bass to varying degrees of standard yet worthy drumming. Just listen to that title track, not only will you be chanting along but also headbanging and impressed by the talent; as well as looking into the mini-drum intro on Eternal Return makes for a mini-Painkiller. Centvrion also try their hand in a semi-ballad/mid-tempo tune with Standing on the Ruins that doesn't exactly work well with the style; it isn't a complete failure, Germano Quintaba saves the song with his high pitched wails.

Other songs work extremely well in the hybrid form of the three subgenres I mentioned earlier, with a great blend of thrashy riffing and technical solos mixed with insane drumming and other headbangable worthy moments (check New Freedom for further reference). While Centvrion certainly aren't gaining or exploring new territory, they play this mixed style of metal very well with extreme precision and their talent shouldn't be passed over easily. Fans of metal in general could enjoy this; especially fans of the hybrid genres and those of the original subgenres would highly appreciate this. If you can pass over the semi-ballad and one filler song this is quite an album!