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Virtute e canoscenza is the second album for Pleonexia, an Italian power metal band that reminds me of Sweden's Timeless Miracle quite a bit. They employ a full-time keyboardist so there are a lot of keys embellishing and enhancing Pleonexia's choruses leaving the verses mostly to the guitars. They mix a little of the crunchy riffing of German power metal with the ultra-melodic stuff typically encountered with Scandinavian bands. Tracks like "Slug on the Highway" (there are other songs with titles like "Forgotten Language Song" and "The March of the Dumbs" that make you wonder if the guys in Pleonexia don't have as firm a grip on English as they might or just an odd sense of humor) illustrate the mix as the driving guitars give way to the chorus's major chords and catchy vocal lines. The production is dry which makes the album sound flat and two-dimensional and the songwriting is competent but lacks flash so there are some problems with Virtute e canoscenza. Even so, it isn't a bad effort and has just enough character to make it more memorable that many of its peers.