Here's a fun mix of a few types of metal (power, progressive, black, & death) from Buenos Aires, courtesy of the band Auvernia. Their debut album is called Towards Eternity, featuring 10 original songs and 2 covers, and it's pretty solid all around, packed with plenty of melody, beefy guitar riffs, manic double bass drums, symphonic keyboards, and a variety of vocal styles. References to acts such as Angra, Blind Guardian, Dimmu Borgir, and Symphony X pop up from time to time, so you no doubt can imagine where these guys are coming from musically. Lead singer Fernando Varela is quite the talent, as he ranges from soaring high-pitched vocals, to more gruff mid-ranged passages, and even plenty of evil black metal growls. Keyboard player Maxmiliano Vaccaro left the band during the recording process of Towards Eternity, but he's featured prominenty here, along with Eric Roldan, as these songs have a very orchestral & symphonic flair to them. Power metal fans will absolutely love the more soaring numbers like "You Will Come" and "A New World is Born", powerful rippers with crunchy guitar work courtesy of Valera and lots if intense drumming to go along with the walls of keys and mix of vocal styles. Elsewhere, look for crazed prog-metal meets black metal on "Inherent Rage", the brutal yet majestic "Running on the Road", and the sledgehammer, symphonic gem that is "The Successor".
The final two tracks are covers of the X-Japan number "Blue Blood" and the Queen classic "The Show Must Go On", both well done, especially the latter, as Auvernia really honed in on the Queen sound quite well. This band really shows a ton of promise throughout Towards Eternity, and chances are they won't be an unsigned band much longer after some of the major metal labels get a whiff of what they're cooking.
Track Listing
1 A New World Is Born
2 A Little of Lust
3 How Cruel Is Destiny
4 You Will Come
5 Interludio Nro 1
6 Inherent Rage
7 Running On the Road
8 The Master Throne
9 The Successor
10 Blue Blood
11 The Show Must Go On
