Band:	Ibridoma
Album:	Ibridoma
Style:	Heavy metal, Power metal
Release date:	January 22, 2010
A review by:	Thryce

01. Red
02. I'm Not Sorry
03. Ibrido
04. Alone In The Wind
05. Jenny
06. Night Falling
07. Night Of Crow
08. Page 26
09. Lady Of Darkness

Heavy metal
Recorded: DPF Studio, Italy 2009
Label: SG Records
Total Running Time: 49:39


Essentially, Italy's Ibridoma are as classic as heavy metal can possibly get. About everything non-cheesy heavy metal stands for is taken in on this debut release. So much that you practically get a black leather biker jacket for free when you purchase the album. But then... then the vocals kick in... Suddenly the bonus biker jacket becomes a bonus black leather speedo/wonderjock that is just a tiny bit too small.

If wonder if a canary in a microwave would sound the same? Level H for high-pitched madness.

Now, I know we all can't be an exact copy of Jag Panzer, but trying to be more of a Jag Panzer clone sometimes, just cannot harm mankind in general. Or at least try to be more like John Cyriis (Agent Steel) when he was still alive, or even Robert John Arthur Halford (if you don't know who this is, you fail) when he was still in his glory days.

There's no easy way to say this, but the downright maddening vocal thing will be bothering you the first couple of times you listen to Ibridoma. But the good news is, that, no matter how out of tune and too high-pitched these vocals sometimes are, it's a voice you kind of grow accustomed to. It just takes a while to get past these peculiar vocals, and with it the funny sounding broken English accent.

Absolute top track on the album is "Ibrido", not coincidentally the only Italian track, because it's also the only track where vocalist Christian Bartolacci sounds a lot more confident and convincing. Maybe this band should just stick to singing in their mother tongue. Instead of a simple re-recording of some of the demo/EP songs (only five of these songs are newly written material), they should have re-recorded these songs in Italian. Just a suggestion, but perhaps a valid one.

All right, enough talk about the vocals, they just lure us away from the music. Because - and now here's a shocker - Ibridoma sounds like nothing you have ever heard before in the heavy metal branch.

Nah, I'm just messing with you. It sounds pretty much exactly like everything that has ever been released in the heavy metal back catalogue. Ibridoma are doing it proudly according to the rules in the book of Heavy Metal (as a figure of speech, not talking about the Dream Evil abortion). The songwriting is simple yet effective and even a little catchy. It's fairly easy to give in to Ibridoma's heavy metal magic, really. The guitar work is pretty hooky, but the riffs won't necessarily stick in your head for days. Though, the ease of their mid-tempo sound should make Ibridoma a reasonably popular band, not in the least in their home districts.

What Ibridoma are bringing has been done countless times before. But if your time machine has broken down and you're feeling a bit nostalgic (or you accidentally microwaved your Jag Panzer collection), you should give this safe yet palatable release a try.