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Third installment of "The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell" series, "Invictus" is supposed to be another one of those 'metal opera' type albums from this band. Now the "Atreus" series were unbelievably good and so the expectation levels were quite high in my case with this one. I've given this thing more than a fair chance to grow on me and there comes a time when you just have to drop the hammer and scrap an album from the list and say it plain and simply does not deliver. And "Invictus" is such an album. It just couldn't do it. A mish-mash of traditional and power metal, I find this album really lacks direction and the whole opera thing doesn't quite work very well here. The songs are not grabby and the riffs are just weak. Nothing I can really hook myself into. Some songs stick out and by no means is this a total waste. But it is not something I particularly enjoy either. Maybe big time Virgin Steele fans can appreciate this more than me. It is very similar to what VG did on the first two "Marriage" series, as well as the following "Atreus" series, but oddly enough, does not sound as great.

A moderately good album :(