REVIEW: IBRIDOMA - Norimberga 2.0

 

IBRIDOMA - Norimberga 2.0

Punishment 18 Records

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The title, unfortunately, brought about negative connotations for me regarding the "Greece 2.0" program announced by the current government with the goal of modernizing my country. A country that, ultimately, in the era of the "pandemic," demonstrated not only its lack of modernity but also its deprivation of the fundamental elements of a social state under the rule of law. A country that left the world to its fate because it was economically more expedient to confine people to their homes than to hire healthcare personnel, and it was easier to justify the harm it caused by blaming the citizens for irresponsibility. A country that during that period essentially abolished basic human rights and freedoms under the pretext of protecting human life, and implemented health protocols more hazardous to life than the virus itself. A country where games of significant economic interests were played amidst human agony and drama. A country that allowed essential safety checks for drugs to be bypassed by invoking a state of emergency, and turned its population into test subjects, first by blackmailing and then by terrorizing them. A country that sent a warning message about danger through mobile phones and did nothing else to protect the lives and property of its residents, as the authorities essentially believed that they had fulfilled their duty to protect us. And, of course, a country where thousands of human lives are lost at sea, seeking a better fate in the civilized Western world, and instead of apologizing for this loss, the authorities simply resort to demonizing them. And many more... And all of these, we observe and accept in an entirely passive manner.

I understand that we are a music magazine, and perhaps we haven't accustomed you to such types of articles, but the new work of the Italians IBRIDOMA, and especially their lyrics, made me reconsider all of the above. I realized that in their lyrics, they express as artists all this agony and human drama that contemporary society is experiencing and describe the passivity and fatalism that we have accepted in all of the above. I think the lyrics of the song titled "Raise Your Head" are characteristic of our era: "We live waiting for someone to rebel for us. People are afraid of losing everything they have got. The power of men, money, calls for you. We are divided by hate. We want to change something without doing anything."

When addressing such issues, it's impossible not to adapt their music accordingly. They continue to play heavy/power metal with many melodic elements, but they've added several influences from the thrash metal sound, especially from bands like the old METALLICA and MEGADETH. You'll also find quite a few grooves in their sound, adding more aggression and emphasizing the dark atmosphere of the whole release. Of course, in their classic metal influences, you'll find references to bands like JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, and BRUCE DICKINSON, but the band has the gift of filtering them through their own style.

In the times we live in, where others decide for us without us, always driven by profit, we need musicians like IBRIDOMA and releases like this to provoke us and make us think. To realize that when everything is approached from an accounting perspective, human life and its values are diminished. I genuinely thank them because they gave me the incentive to write one of the most meaningful reviews I have done lately and to delve into issues of social reflection, precisely because that is the purpose of art.

Nick Parastatidis