Ibridoma ‘City Of Ruins’
Album Review By Adam McCann
Punishment 18 Records/2019/Heavy Metal
The Italian metal band Ibridoma formed in 2001 and since their inception, they have consistently released a steady stream of albums to a warm reception and last year, Ibridoma quietly managed to sneak out their fifth studio album ‘City Of Ruins’.
As with all Ibridoma’s releases, ‘City Of Ruins’ bursts out of the hatches like a greyhound, blasting forward with a heavy metal sound that would appeal to fans of not only a traditional heavy metal sound, but also one which touches on both power and death metal. However, this also leads ‘City of Ruins’ to flirt around different genres without significantly choosing one definitive genre. Moreover, Ibridoma do what they do exceptionally well and it is all delivered through a decent production.
Yet, with ‘City of Ruins’, Ibridoma have delivered some excellent songs; tracks such as ‘Evil Wind’, ‘Angel of War’ and the title track show just how much Ibridoma have grown as a band, particularly the Megadeth inspired riff that adorns ‘Evil Wind?’. However, what makes ‘City of Ruins’ stand out are the closing tracks ‘Fragile’, ‘I’m Broken’ and ‘Terminator’. For example, ‘Fragile’ contains some memorably crowd-pleasing whoa whoa whoas, whilst ‘Terminator’ ploughs into the sci-fi movie of the same name, whilst ‘I’m Broken’ is a slow burning hard rock ballad in which Ibridoma perfectly bare their soul.
‘City of Ruins’ is a fun record and whilst it may seem to have been forgotten in the midst of time at the end of last year, it is certainly worth a listen with Ibridoma certainly a contender for Italy’s best kept secret.
Rating : 82/100
MHF Magazine/Adam McCann
