AUVERNIA belongs to those cases where a band is born more like a to-have-fun-in-the-studio project than a full time act. So, AUVERNIA came to life in 1999 in Argentina with a sole goal to experiment in the studio. One thing led to the other and a four track EP was produced with a demo look. The pretty positive feedback motivated the band to go farther and in 2008 the debut full length "You Will Come" saw the light of day.

Despite a decade of activity, the band from Argentina has not solidified a personal sound and anno 2010 "Afraid Of Me" is being released following a different musical direction than the previous album. "You Will Come" had a Power Metal direction while the album in question wanders between genres and sounds 'playing' with danger to be characterized as unfocused.

"Meeting" kicks in with some NIGHTWISH sounding orchestrations, fooling the listener that female vocals will follow soon. Instead of this, you get male vocals while the track enters the progressive Metal realm with multiple keyboard layers and fast guitar work. But these is not all, since the electronic sounds and the growling vocals make a stop in CREMATORY's vibe followed by an almost Black Metal blastbeat. And remember this is a single track we are currently discussing. Indeed, the almost seven-minute song is literally packed with influences that try to squeeze but in the end fail to prevail on AUVERNIA's sound. I cannot but admit that listening to the album opener caused confusion in mind in the context of my pointless attempt to stick a label on the musical identity. On the other hand failing to find a single label for an album can be interesting in terms of music diversity and consequently originality. Actually, after the initial shock "Afraid Of Me" starts showing its teeth as the album flows, giving the listener the chance to identify the band's more stable elements. And those are the CREAMATORY grooves, the minimal orchestrations and the very good clean vocals. Fortunately, the progressive layer stays undercover and does not mess the overall music with over-sophisticated guitar or keyboard phrases.

AUVERNIA has not abandoned the Power Metal sound and songs like "Anguish" or "Self Reflective Fear" hit hard with catchy melodies, fast double drum pedaling and sing-along tunes. In particular, in the latter track you can also find some classical music finishing touches in the guitar leads that - along with the growling vocals - sound at least interesting. These guys from AUVERNIA seem to have a great background in music and this is proven in every composition in "Afraid Of Me". The instrumental "Interludio Porteρo" is an audio proof for their classic music education, along with some almost Jazz influences that spice things up even more.

Nevertheless, this is a very good album despite the fact that it feels 'crowded' with all these influences struggling for some air. There is potential in AUVERNIA that simply waits to be fully deployed as soon as the music writing will become more focused than it is shown here. I will definitely keep an eye and an ear on them for their future development.