The only good thing about Page 26, a five-track cd from Italian Heavy Metal quintet Ibridoma, is that these guys are really lucky to have such a good vocalist as Christian Bartolacci at their disposal. The man does have what it takes and even reminds me of great Robert Plant at his most inspired moments. As for the rest, I really tried hard to detect at least one more reasons that could allow me to grant this band some extra credit, but every time I found myself either at a dead end or very reluctant to carry on with any further exploration. Just a bit above average production, monotonous rhythms without much variation, simple pounding bass and the leads that are neither heavy nor exciting enough.

The first three songs sound the same and use the same mid-tempo rhythms and boring three-chord tunes. The last two songs are also nearly the same, and you don’t even notice when the former ends and the latter starts. These two are actually ballads laying a claim to be called heavy ballads due to a little bit of acceleration in the pace and some heavier guitars sandwiched in between the slower parts. The solos sound as if they had been extracted right from albums by The Beatles or The Animals. All this makes it rather impossible for me to be able to tolerate Page 26, or ever want to deal with any possible subsequent pages.

The last straw is that the promo package doesn’t even contain any information about this album except for the line-up of the band and the date the guys entered the studio in order to record it. No release date, no song titles, let alone any booklet with lyrics. Now go figure whether it’s worth efforts to even try to begin as a band in the today’s modern and sophisticated metal scene with a shabby package like this.

[Visit the band's website]

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