Hibria

Defying The Rules

Magick Records

9 tracks; 50:05

This is crazy. I'm normally not too keen on power metal at all, so why can't I stop listening to this disk??

Blasting out of Brazil are upcoming power metallers, Hibria, with their mind-blowing debut release, Defying The Rules. A peek at the album booklet reveals, "Our goal was composing an album with lots of metal energy in which we could sing, bang and feel the freedom running through our veins!!!" A pretty lofty goal, but man do they deliver! Throwing in a solid salute to the masters of old school 80's power metal, Hibria tear through the nine tracks at breakneck speed. Boasting a surprisingly powerful range, Iuri Samson is ready to compete with the best of 'em! Listeners can expect an overly generous helping of thrashy power riffs through the album, the type that will have you throwing your fists in the air and windmilling like crazy. Sorry, no space for dragons, symphonies, keyboards or wizards on this release.

As a young band, Hibria has certainly gone the extra step in creating their first full-length, and it shows. It will be interesting to see how they progress from here. This is the kind of stuff that makes instant converts out of disbelievers (myself included). Strong and fast, no messing around. Defying The Rules will definitely go over well with fans of Maiden, Helloween or 3 Inches Of Blood. You won't find any power metal cheese here, just an hour of heavy energetic goodness.

Tina Sequeira