Hibria - they're frickin great!

Prezatch

It's been a long time since I'v come across some newish power metal/thrash metal that I really enjoy listening to, partly because it was the genre that got me into metal and I'v kind of lost interest in it at this stage, but also because I think most of the stuff these days seems pretty uninspired and bland to me.

Along come Hibria! A friend reccommended their album to me and I was pleasantly surprised. Although clean vocals run throughout, the riffs have just the right amount of heaviness in them to prevent the album being labelled as another "cheesy" release into the genre. There are no keyboards mushing up the sound or choirs turning it into an overproduced mess but there is some amazingly competent guitar and bass.

What I really like about the album is that it maintains a bit of emotion and aggression and doesn't sound like good musicians just doing the rounds and playing some technical riffs and solos. However, that's not to say that this a progressive masterpiece or anything, far from it. It's just a really fun thrashy album that is executed perfectly.

Legal downloads of two of their songs can be found on their website here. "Defying the rules" would be my favourite track.