When you look at the epic cover of Ibridoma‘s latest full-length City of Ruins (2018), it’s not surprising that these Italians got our attention. If you go for traditional metal with some fresh elements, you definitely should check these guys out.

Hi, Marco, how are you doing?

Marco Vitali: Hello everyone, we’re fine despite the bad times we’re in, but we console ourselves by composing new songs waiting to return to play live again.

That sounds good! Did this damned pandemic destroy a lot of your plans with Ibridoma?

It didn’t really destroy our plans, but it certainly damaged us a lot, many of our concerts were canceled, but the worst blow was that our guitarist Sebastiano left the band. He left us for personal reasons, but also the pandemic influenced his choice, we were very sorry, but we’ll certainly be able to move forward.

I think there are still some readers who don’t know Ibridoma yet. Tell us a bit about the history of your band, please. 

Ibridoma were born in 2001 from an idea of Alessandro Morroni to which Christian Cartolacci, Pietro Alessandrini, Simone Mogetta and Lorenzo Petrini were immediately added. Afterwards, they composed the EP Lady of Darkness. Over the years, the line-up has often changed, Pietro left the group bringing in me, Marco Vitali. After the release of Page 26 also Lorenzo gave way to Leonardo Ciccarelli, this line-up produced the first full length Ibridoma in 2010, Simone left the group and Daniele Monaldi entered with whom we composed Nightclub in 2011, but one year later he left the band and Sebastiano Ciccalè took over with whom we created the last three albums Goodbye Nation (2014), December (2016) and City of Ruins (2018). Over the years we played at various concerts accompanying many important groups and musicians such as Manowar, Kamelot, Arch Enemy, Sabaton and many others.

Over the years we played at various concerts accompanying many important groups and musicians such as Manowar, Kamelot, Arch Enemy, Sabaton and many others.

Ibridoma on stage.

How would you define the style of your band?

The band started with a classic heavy metal style, but over the years we made many style changes, thanks mostly to the line-up changes, coming from different styles, like death metal, metal core, hard rock and classic heavy – everyone of us influenced the composition of the songs with his own musical background. We are still heavy metal, but now it’s «hybrid».

Which bands would you classify as your major influences?

Our major influences come from the most varied bands, first of all Iron Maiden, but there are also bands like Six Feet Under, Bon Jovi, Judas Priest, HammerFall, Megadeth, Cannibal Corpse, Breakdown Of Sanity and many others.

Do you read a lot of reviews about Ibridoma? And what was the weirdest thing you’ve read in an article?

Honestly, I couldn’t say the weirdest thing I’ve read about us since there have been all kinds of them, but among them it has been written that we’re trivial, that the drummer goes out of time, that the bass dominates over the other instruments, that the solos seem taken from guitar manuals or that the singer doesn’t take a note even paying for it. Everyone is free to think as they want, but honestly, I don’t know what role models they have to review us in this way.

I totally agree with you… How popular is traditional metal in Italy these days? Is there a vivid underground scene? 

Until a few years ago, classic metal seemed to disappear, except for a few bands of veterans, but lately it seems to be resurrecting thanks to various bands of teenagers who are taking up this style for their bands.

Are there any Italian bands who you would like to recommend?

There are many Italian bands that we like, among these the ones we recommend are Adamas, Elvenking, DGM and Trick or Treat.

There are many Italian bands that we like, among these the ones we recommend are Adamas, Elvenking, DGM and Trick or Treat.

Check them out!

What’s your favourite festival? Where would you like to play with Ibridoma in the future?

There are a lot of festivals that we love and would like to participate in, both as fans and as artists, among them we can name Wacken Open Air and Summer Breeze Open Air, both in Germany, or Hellfest in France.

On our blog, we focus mainly on epic metal. Do you like this genre? If so: What are your favourite bands and records?

We love this genre very much, even it is not the first one we are inspired by, of this genre we love Rhapsody Of Fire, HammerFall, Blind Guardian, Kamelot and Domine.

2020 was a disaster, no doubt about it. But there were some great releases: What’s your favourite album released last year?

In the year just ended the bands obviously focused more on studio album, as they could not do live, so many of them came out, among these the ones we liked most were Ozzy Osbourne’s Ordinary Man, Trick or Treat’s The legend of the XII Saints, Primal Fear’s Metal Commando and Trivium’s What Dead Men Say.

Last question: Iron Maiden or Judas Priest?

Iron Maiden for life.

Fore sure! Marco, many thanks for your time. We look forward to new Ibridoma material in the near future!