After a decade, hard rock band Dicta License is back - and once again, they're not afraid to tackle the current socio-political issues in the Philippines.
DICTA License is back and they are speaking up even louder about social events in the present-day Philippines with their long-awaited sophomore album, ‘Pagbigkas’ to be released this Friday (April 9).
In 2005, the band released their debut album ‘Paghilom’, which explicitly addressed socio-political issues in the country.
‘Pagbigkas’ was written in the same tradition: the band writes on their YouTube page that the album is about “social contexts in the present day Philippines and begs us to question the realities that we face”.
Dicta License revealed the track list for ‘Pagbigkas’, which features 12 songs. It includes singles put out by the band over the years, which date as far back as 2018’s ‘Bagong Bayani’, as well as the most recent release ‘Inosenteng Bala’, from September 2020.
The group is renowned for its powerful mixture of melodica alternative hard rock and confrontational rap and rhythms.
Social commentary was high on the lyrical agenda, and the song “Ang Ating Araw” remains one of the most powerful anthems ever produced by a local band.
Besides playing to a 25,000 crowd at the Busan International Rock Festival in Korea, Dicta had also released an EP and a full-length album titled “Paghilom” under Warner Music.
The band spent the first half of the 2010s inactive, with frontman Pochoy Lobog studying law in the United States.
Reuniting for a concert in 2015, Dicta License returned to music in the following years, dropping two singles in 2020: ‘Salita’ and ‘Inosoteng Bala’.
The latter commemorated the country’s historic 14-year martial law period, which was enacted in 1972 by its former leader Ferdinand Marcos.
The single was recorded in quarantine with US-based producer Jorel Corpus, formerly of Filipino rock band Kjwan.
However, Dicta License practically evaporated like smoke under the table.
Bassist Kelly Mahangas and guitarist Boogie Romero concentrated on their other band Kjwan which became more successful commercially. Pochoy Labog, vocalist and guitarist, went on to pursue his Law Degree in the United States.
With other projects and personal matters keeping them busy, the members probably thought little of the band’s actual impact.
Over the last couple of years, the band has released songs with powerful messages such as ‘Diktador’ and ‘Bagong Bayani’.
Guitarist Romero shared that while a part of him was afraid to speak up, he felt that “this was the best way I could contribute to consciousness and change”.
(NP)
Tags: #music, #hardrock, #DictaLicense