MARTIRIA is an Heavy Metal quartet from Rome, Italy, formed by mastermind Andy Menario, a long time ago (1987), their determination is unquestionable, unaltered by the classical musicians turn-over/The split and the reborn in 2003, after five underground releases, now it's time for MARTIRIA to make its own revolution and to publish its own milestone or something really superior to their past albums, something more ambitious and they obviously succeeded. With "R-Evolution" the veterans from the MARTIRIA's squadron celebrates the tenth anniversary of their debut album in 2004 called "The Eternal Soul" with their best release ever .

To finally reach the success and in order to reward its own legacy and unveil its creative potential , the band signed with UK's Rocksector Records and they enlist the Danish genius Tue Madsen (MOONSPELL / DARK TRANQUILLITY / THE HAUNTED) as mixing engineer and also the legendary ex-BLACK SABBATH / DIO's drummer Vinny Appice (ex-WWIII / KILL DEVIL HILL), I believe they played all their winning cards with this album rightly titled "R-Evolution" as much in the musical side than in the marketing trick, indeed the American citizen Mr. Appice looks like their strongest selling point.

The music displayed by MARTIRIA is clearly influenced by HEAVEN AND HELL / SABBATH and early RAINBOW with some PRIMAL FEAR references ("Salem") and even a few synthetic orchestral arrangements , those flavors in addition with songs like "Light brigade": a short theme that displayed an Folk / Medieval flare, those parameters really helps to creates the Dark Epic Spirit set in the now famous Italian tradition. The new singer Flavio Cosma, fills in for ex-vocalist Rick Anderson aka Damian King III from WARLORD's fame, with much effectiveness and ease, his roaring is impressive (notably in the Doom Epic "The Road of Tenochtitlan") with just a few too much vibrato for my taste, but at the end of the listening session, he remains as the strongest asset of this album.

And if it's a giant step in the right direction, with a good production and a fine, vigorously and updated line up, however it's not exactly a triumph or a masterpiece as expected or announced... Because with cuts like "Grim Reaper" and "Across The Mountains" which are sadly uninspired , under the quality of the early tracks and the fact that overall this apply to the end of the running order, which shows a songwriting method which is pale, average ("Revolution") and lackluster compared to the brighter moments on this album.

I even detected in and there some almost botched moments in the process... Luckily the closing song, the Darker "Tsushima" which is the longest track on the album and is by far their Doomiest time, but it holds a noble lyrical shuffle in the melodic parts and it's the best way to finish this album. A bunch of interesting numbers with enthusiastic points but also ordinary tracks, still recommended for the lovers of Melodic Doom Metal and BLACK SABBATH's Die hard completest.