### Ektomorf: Redemption

#### 24/02/11 || revenant

I’m going to keep this review short and to the point because, quite frankly, Ektomorf just don’t deserve the attention. Ektomorf are a blatant rip off of the Sepultura/Soulfly groove sound and outright refuse/resist to admit it. Anyone who’s been visiting this site for more than two minutes would already know that Lord K, owner and patriarch of this site, fucking hates Ektomorf for this very reason. How could you miss it? He mentioned it here, here and here. Not to mention he didn’t miss the opportunity to drop a sledge here, here, here, here or here either. Is such vitriol justified? Damn fucking right it is.

Ektomorf are completely shameless in their ripping off of Sepultura/Soulfly. If you have heard any album from 1990 onwards that Max Cavalera was a key songwriter on, you have already heard this album. Ok, maybe not the exact songs, but the down-tuned riffs, broken English vocals and nu-metal flourishes are all Max to the core. But Ektomorf do more than just play in Max’s territory, they completely plagiarize it, yet declare we who are not like others invented this ourselves. Clearly they are born stubborn. No way, they say, does our music have its roots bloody roots in what they did. But we all know that’s propaganda. Shall I continue to pun on or get back to writing a fucking review here?

The songs you get on “Redemption” are pretty simply structured, based around simple groove-driven riffs. Everything is kept simple, designed to sound heavy and aggressive. Anyone looking for technical or imaginative music will find themselves bored quickly here, because each song is 3 minutes of hook-driven anger with no diversity. Lyrically this is the most meatheaded album I’ve heard in some time. Every chorus is a repetition of the song title, and every song contains the words “fuck/fucking” and “hate”, not to mention “fight” and “kill” get a flogging as well. Yeah dude, I get it, grrrrr grrrrrr you’re angry. Whatever. Overall it just comes across as muscle flexing while shouting “look how tough I am”, and little more.

The other major problem with this album is that it sounds so dated, even with the pumped up production, because this sound has already been done to death by the bands Ektomorf are ripping off (and done better too!). Even Soulfly is moving on. Fifteen years ago I might have gone apeshit over this, but it’s 2011. Do people still go nuts over groove metal?

This is not a completely worthless album but, let’s face it, by completely ripping off someone else this band is effectively redundant as a creative force. If you weren’t satisfied by the last Soulfly album and are hungry for the same, maybe this album is for you. As for the rest of the metal world, it’s probably something to be passed over as this has been done before, and done better.

- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: AFM Records
- Website: Ektomorf MySpace
- Band
- Zoltán Farkas: vocals, guitars
- Tamás Schrottner: guitars
- Szabolcs Murvai: bass
- Jozsef Szakács: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Last Fight
- 02. Redemption
- 03. I’m In Hate
- 04. God Will Cut You Down
- 05. Stay Away
- 06. Never Should
- 07. Sea Of My Misery
- 08. The One
- 09. Revolution
- 10. Cigany
- 11. Stigmatized
- 12. Anger