Born in 1994, CENTURION released a demo in 1998 titled ‘Sharpened Razor’ and highly acclaimed by the Italian metal-magazines as one of the best of the year. Several Italian and European labels offered a deal to the ‘centurions’ and in the fall of 1998 they decided to sign with Scarlet and entered the studios for the recording sessions of the debut-album ‘Arise Of The Empire’.
‘Arise Of The Empire’ is a masterpiece of classic metal in the vein of Judas Priest, Metal Church, Grave Digger, Hellowen and Primal Fear. It really shines under the lights of the maniac singer Germano Quintabà, and the brothers Fabio and Luciano Monti, both guitar players. The sound is a perfect union between the past and the future of heavy metal…
You can listen to mid-tempos in the 80’s style, whereas there are present a lot of powerful songs reminding the listener jewels like ‘Painkiller’ with the sonic impact of ‘Jugulator’ (‘Centurion’, ‘Steel Breath’, ‘Mors Tua Vita Mea’). As well as creators of solid and monolithic power metal, Centurion show their class as refined composers of melodic refrains and choruses as ‘Bloodstreets’ or ‘Raging Power’.
‘Arise Of The Empire’ is definitely the only pure-metal-release coming from Italy comparable for quality to products of international value and received the top rating review from the legendary HAMMER (ex-Metal Hammer) in Germany! A big result followed by many other great reviews everywhere… from Germany, France, Spain, Greece, east-Europe, South America, Japan and of course Italy, where Centurion has already become one of the favest and most appreciated act of the last metal-generation. The band displayed also their talent and a devastating-monumental live attitude playing a lot of shows and Festivals around the Italic-peninsula, catching the true power ‘feeling’ and spreading the real metal word!
Now after a small break, the band is ready to strike again with a new full-metal attack! 'Hyper Martyrium' comes with a renewed line-up (a totally new rhythm section joined Monti’s brothers on guitars and the vocal-master Germano Quintabà) and a powerful sound, mastered and edited at Massive Arts Studio (Necrodeath & Terror 2000).
Far from the power metal standards the Centurions pushed their metal engine even harder, with a simply amazing result! The new material is '100% PURE METAL-VIOLENCE' without compromise! The songs are crushing & devastating, with fast riffs and powerful breaks, the singer Germano proove to be a real metal-maniac without controll and his voice explodes like thunderstorms.
Imagine a mix between Judas Priest, Testament & Slayer.... Frightening!