IBRIDOMA
“Norimberga 2.0”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

8/10

Ibridoma are a heavy metal band from Italy formed in 2001, releasing six albums to date – ‘Ibridoma’ (2010), ‘Night Club’ (2012), ‘Goodbye Nation’ (2014), ‘December’ (2016), ‘City Of Ruins’ (2018), and ‘Norimberga 2.0’ released in 2022.

The brainchild of drummer Alessandro Morroni and vocalist Christian Bartolacci, Ibridoma are a heavy hitting phenomena – their brand of metal bludgeoning, yet insanely catchy! The band have played hundreds of shows throughout their twenty year career to date, performing with some of metals biggest bands – bands such as Blaze Bayley, Rhapsody Of Fire, Sabaton, and Queensryche.

Ibridoma’s new album is packed to the rafters with fast paced head bang-able heavy metal, all kicking off with ‘Ti ho visto andare via’ – a bludgeoning barrage of bold and brash metal! Sung in what I imagine is the bands native tongue, ‘Ti ho visto andare via’ proves that old adage “music is a universal language” to be unequivocally correct. And from that heavy hitting yet melodic opening, Ibridoma rocket forth with the faster paced ‘Woman From The Stars’. The galloping rhythm of old school traditional metal fills the air as the band storm on by. Two very different songs across the albums opening double salvo. The title song ‘Norimberga 2.0’ hits just as hard as the previous song, albeit at a slower pace and tempo. However, the bands heaviness remains intact, relentlessly pummelling the senses. And after just three songs, Ibridoma’s new album has grabbed my attention – and will grab yours too! The bombastic and ground shuddering aural assault is incredible, and will turn heads wherever it is played and heard.

Adopting the classic sound of traditional heavy metal, the band thunder on with ‘House Of Cards’, blowing away the cobwebs from every old school metaller. For ‘House Of Cards’ is pure old school, with an added dash of bulldozing heaviness. Injecting the most melodious streak heard so far, ‘Coming Home’ borders on the heavy rock genre as it swaggers forth at a mid tempo pace. Ibridoma are running amok through the heavy metal genre, visiting every corner, nook and cranny with their new album. The variation is cracking – appealing to a vast array of metal fans. Returning the bold and brash, wreck your neck while head banging hard style of heavy metal, the band hit the aural pleasure zones with ‘Into The Sea’. Packing more punch than the bowl of fruit juice, spices, wine and champagne needed for the month long New Year’s Eve celebrations in Rimini, ‘Into The Sea’ is a feast of fire cracking detonations.

Picking up the pace and hurtling forth like a rocket launched into orbit, ‘Pandemia’ is high tempo, high energy heavy metal to head bang hard to! The traditional metal gallop and “foot on the monitor” feel of classic heavy metal is a glorious sound – with ‘Pandemia’ a cracking example. Entering the realms of groove based modern metal, ‘Raise Your Head’ is an infectious rumble of hard hitting thrash – well almost! Ibridoma keeping one foot in the traditional metal genre and firmly planting the other in thrash metal territory. What a diverse album ‘Norimberga 2.0’ is turning out to be! With its more mellower intro, ‘Where Are You Tonight’ sounds like we’re heading down the ballad road… And while that’s a little true, ‘Where Are You Tonight’ is a cross between ballad, power ballad, and classic AOR. So I’ll give the band the benefit of the doubt here, and not lambaste them for including a rock staple on a metal album. For in my (not going to enter into a discussion with you) opinion, ballads are rock, not metal. And oh, hell no! Another ballad-esque number! Ibridoma ending the album with two ballads! Such a shame as eighty percent of ‘Norimberga 2.0’ has been fucking great heavy metal – the band opting for a rock orientated finale. To be fair though, ‘Eyes Of The Stranger’ is heavier than ‘Where Are You Tonight’, but it still manages to take a little gloss off the overall feel of the album.

Overall, a thunderous album of heavy metal, encompassing other styles such as thrash and rock.

TRACKLIST

Ti ho visto andare via
Woman From The Stars
Norimberga 2.0
House Of Cards
Coming Home
Into This Sea
Pandemia
Raise Your Head
Where Are You Tonight
Eyes Of The Stranger

https://ibridoma.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ibridomaofficial

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