Butt Splitters are an Italian band and “Nibelvirch” is the concept album with which they established their presence in 2024: twelve tracks, about 62 minutes of music, and a story that begins with the diaries of Paul Amadeus Dienach.
“`Country: Italy
Genre: Heavy metal / Industrial metal
For fans of: Iron Maiden, System of a Down, Rage Against the Machine
When Heavy Metal looks the future straight in the eye
“Nibelvirch” by the Italian Butt Splitters, released in 2024 and made up of 12 tracks and about 62 minutes of music, is a concept album based on the diaries of Paul Amadeus Dienach, with the story carrying the listener from illness and lethargy into an extremely distant future. The band doesn’t treat the story as simple background for the songs. It uses it as the skeleton on which it builds the entire album.
And somewhere here the real journey begins.
A SOUND THAT REFUSES TO BE PUT IN A BOX
Butt Splitters describe their material as industrial metal, but “Nibelvirch” is far more open than that description suggests.
There’s the classic heavy metal riffing.
There’s groove.
There’s alternative metal.
There are moments that smell of old-school metal from miles away.
There are more modern, almost nu-metal explosions.
There are melodic passages, hard rock references and points that let the guitars take the lead.
And most importantly: none of this arises because the band is desperately trying to prove how many genres it knows.
It arises because Butt Splitters have learned to write songs through their experience as a live band. Their own story begins with cover shows and a repertoire that stretched from AC/DC and Iron Maiden to Rage Against the Machine and System of a Down. “Nibelvirch” feels like the moment all that experience passed through their own filter.
And you can hear it.
“ENCEPHALITIS LETHARGICA” – THE DOOR OPENS
The first blow isn’t typical.
“Encephalitis Lethargica” works as the entrance into the world of the album and at the same time as a statement of intent. Heavy, dramatic and full of guitar energy, it has that distinctive European metal feel where the riff has to have weight but also melody.
This isn’t a song that relies solely on speed.
It relies on the build.
The guitars push the track forward, the drums hold a sturdy metal frame and Stefano Firmani’s vocals move from clean, expressive singing to more aggressive moments.
And already from here something important becomes clear:
Butt Splitters are more interested in the song than in showing off technique.
“FLOWERS OF THE WIND” – THE FEELING AFTER THE STORM
If the opening track puts the listener inside the story, “Flowers of the Wind” temporarily lowers the intensities and lets the emotion breathe.
Melody plays a huge role here, with the track developing gradually instead of trying to win the listener over by force.
It’s one of the moments where “Nibelvirch” proves that metal doesn’t always need to attack.
Sometimes it’s enough to weigh on you.
The track is also particularly important within the album’s presentation, as the band later brought it back as the official lyric video, emphasizing the themes of transience, freedom and life.
“MISTERY OF TIME” – TIME BREAKS INTO RIFFS
“Mistery of Time” — as it appears on the official tracklist — returns the album to more traditional metal ground.
Here the influences of classic European heavy metal become more noticeable, without the band ever sounding like a tribute act.
The guitars take the leading role and the composition plays with its dynamics before heading into a more aggressive finale.
It’s one of those tracks that remind you why the riff remains the basic language of metal.
No matter how complicated a concept becomes, in the end there has to be a riff that makes you bang your head.
And here there is one.
“INSOMNIA” – NIGHT, INTENSITY AND GUITARS
“Insomnia” moves again on a more traditional heavy metal path, but with enough dynamics that it doesn’t sound like a reenactment of another era.
The guitars lead, the rhythmic base remains solid and the song works more as a metal performance than as an atmospheric interlude.
And that’s something Butt Splitters know how to do well:
to take a concept with plenty of philosophy and bring it back down to earth with a strong riff.
“THE DEATH BELLS RANG FAR AWAY” – HERE THE ALBUM TURNS WILD
Here the heavier side of “Nibelvirch” starts to surface.
The riffing becomes more aggressive, the guitars fill the space and the band creates that sense of a metal wall that doesn’t need excessive studio polishing to work.
The interesting thing is that Butt Splitters aren’t afraid to let the compositions take on different personalities.
This is at once the album’s great weapon and its biggest risk.
Because “Nibelvirch” isn’t an album that follows one safe recipe from start to finish.
“WE ARE ALIVE” – METAL ENTERS THE 21ST CENTURY
With “We Are Alive”, the band leaves more room for alternative/modern metal influences.
The groove becomes more prominent, the vocal phrasing more modern and the composition takes on a different mobility.
And here it becomes especially clear how useful Butt Splitters’ experience as a cover band was for them.
They aren’t afraid to use different languages of metal.
They have no obsession with proving they’re “pure” something.
They’re metal because that’s how they write.
And that’s enough.
“GLOBAL WAR” – THE HARDEST TURN
“Global War” is perhaps one of the points where the album takes on the most modern/groove character.
The guitars become heavier, the rhythm section takes on more weight and Firmani’s performance takes on a different intensity.
It’s no coincidence that different reviews have dwelt particularly on the eclecticism of this specific track, recognizing even alternative/nu-metal influences within the overall metal core.
It’s a track that doesn’t ask permission to change speed.
It just does it.
“NEVER AND NEVER AGAIN” – THE CHORUS THAT STICKS
If there’s one moment where Butt Splitters show they can write a big metal refrain, it’s here.
“Never And Never Again” leans more on the band’s hard rock/classic metal DNA and proves that a strong chorus doesn’t necessarily mean commercialization.
In metal, catchy isn’t a swear word.
The problem is when catchy is empty.
Here there’s a riff, there’s dynamics and there’s melody.
And that’s why it works.
“HOMELAND” – BACK TO HEAVY
“Homeland” weighs down the atmosphere again.
The groove becomes more intense, the guitars take on greater aggression and the band builds a track that feels made for a live venue.
And perhaps that’s where one of “Nibelvirch”’s greatest assets lies.
Butt Splitters don’t write like a studio project.
They write like a band that’s thinking about the stage.
After all, the album’s presentation was designed from the start as a multimedia live experience, with synchronized videos accompanying the songs and reinforcing the story.
“BEAUTY TO THE WORLD” – THE LIGHT WITHIN THE DARK
The album isn’t constantly heavy.
And that’s good.
“Beauty To The World” opens up the band’s more melodic side, letting the guitars and the voice work more as carriers of melody than as weapons of attack.
It isn’t the most extreme point of the record.
But it is essential to its overall balance.
An album that’s constantly in the red at some point stops having dynamics.
“Nibelvirch” understands when it should attack and when it should take a step back.
“DEAR DIARY” – THE PERSONAL SIDE
“Dear Diary” is shorter in duration, but important for the narrative.
At just a little over three minutes, it works as a more direct chapter before the big closing.
And somewhere here the listener has now understood that the album isn’t trying to become a collection of singles.
It’s a story divided into songs.
“MAGNET OF MY DESTINY” – THE ENDING IS BIG
And then comes the nearly eight-minute “Magnet Of My Destiny”.
There could be no better way to close such an album than a composition that leaves room for melody, drama and development.
The duration here is justified.
We don’t have a song that just repeats a refrain until it reaches eight minutes.
We have a track that works like a final chapter.
Like end credits.
And when it reaches its end, “Nibelvirch” has now completed its cycle.
THE GUITARS ARE THE HEART OF THE ALBUM
If one element has to stand out that holds the entire album upright, it’s the guitar duo.
Carlo Tabarrini and Marco Radicchi don’t try to turn every song into a technique contest.
Instead, they work on riffs, melodies, harmonies and solos that serve the compositions.
And that has greater value.
Because metal doesn’t necessarily need a hundred notes per second.
It needs the right note at the right moment.
The previous MetalWave review also dwelt particularly on the coherence of the guitars and the band’s rhythmic precision, while noting the strong presence of influences from Iron Maiden, AC/DC and SOAD.
THE VOICE
Stefano Firmani is perhaps the most multi-dimensional element of “Nibelvirch”.
The album demands different interpretive approaches and Firmani doesn’t stay in just one vocal formula.
Clean vocals, more aggressive expressions, dramatic performances and more modern phrasing alternate depending on the song.
That flexibility is essential in an album that changes face so often.
And, as has also been pointed out in other listens to the record, the voice is a key factor in keeping the different musical styles connected to each other.
THE ONLY THING THAT COULD HOLD IT BACK
“Nibelvirch” has a weakness that is at the same time part of its charm:
it wants a lot.
It wants heavy metal.
It wants groove.
It wants alternative.
It wants melody.
It wants concept.
It wants narrative.
It wants different moods.
And because all of this happens within an album that lasts over an hour, there are moments where the eclecticism can work against absolute coherence.
But I’d take a band that takes such a risk a thousand times over a band that plays safe metal until it has nothing left to say.
Butt Splitters aren’t trying to reinvent metal.
They’re trying to make it their own.
And that’s a far more interesting mission.
VERDICT
“Nibelvirch” isn’t an album you should listen to while looking for a specific label.
It isn’t “pure” heavy.
It isn’t clean industrial.
It isn’t alternative.
It isn’t progressive.
It’s a heavy metal hybrid, made by musicians who have spent time on stage, have heard very different metal and decided to let it all collide inside a concept album.
And that collision is what makes “Nibelvirch” interesting.
From the heavy opening of “Encephalitis Lethargica” to the epic closing of “Magnet Of My Destiny”, Butt Splitters create a world where old heavy metal meets modern groove, melody collides with aggression and a science-fiction story turns into a metal narrative.
It isn’t perfect.
It doesn’t need to be.
It has corners, it has excesses, it has different directions and moments that ask the listener to follow them.
But it has something much more important:
it has personality.
And when an underground metal band manages to create an album that can make you remember Iron Maiden, pass through SOAD and groove metal, touch hard rock, return to classic heavy and still remain recognizable as the same band, then something has been done right.
Butt Splitters entered “Nibelvirch” with metal as their starting point.
They came out of it having built their own metallic world.
And that deserves to be heard loudly.
Metal is not dead. Sometimes it just wakes up 1,800 years later.
Review: Angels PR Music Promotion – Stevil
More on the same side of metal: Manowar – Battle Hymns.
See also
See also: Machine Head – Of Kingdom and Crown and Butt Splitters and the new live video for “Homeland”.
See also: Manowar – Into Glory Ride
