Moving Ground

Moving Ground, issued by King Records on 28 February 2018, is Hibria's sixth studio album. In December 2017, with the recording already finished, the band announced that Iuri Sanson (vocals) and three others were all leaving at once. The album was not made as a farewell, but it became the final document of the Hibria that had run since 1996. The title names its subject: ground that will not hold still. The title track opens on a heavy riff and a wide chorus, and "A Life for Yourself" and "The Shapeshifter" show the fast riffing and metre-shifting construction that have always been this band's signature are entirely intact. "Sailing Ship" and "Souls Ain't for Sale" bring the middle of the record down to a steadier footing, and melody takes an increasing share as the album moves toward "Safe Shore" and "Heaven". Twenty years on, Sanson's voice still reaches its upper register, and he uses it to serve the songs rather than to display it. The Japanese edition appeared the same day as KICP-1887 with "Reset My Brain" added as a bonus track. Japan had been this band's quickest market since the debut, and this record sits in that same relationship. Hibria then stayed off the stage for roughly two years, returning in Porto Alegre in December 2019; Me7amorphosis would take four.