Ektomorf
Aggressor

January 2016
Released: 2015, AFM Records
Rating: 1.5/5
Reviewer: Peter Atkinson

Not sure what more there is to say about Hungary's Ektomorf other than if you like Soulfly, you'll like these guys. If not, you won't.



Like many of its predecessors, Aggressor – Ektomorf's 11th studio album if my math is correct – is a dead ringer for just about any and all of Soulfly's efforts over the years. From the bouncy, bottom-heavy grooves, to the chest-beating hooks to frontman/guitarist Zoltán Farkas' gruff, profane barking and voice-of-the-downtrodden lyrics, Ektomorf take Max Cavalera and company's playbook and follow it chapter and verse. Even the thick, drop-tuned tone of the production here from Tue Madsen is spot-on.



Cannibal Corpse's George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher does lend a bit of savage spice to the Cannibal-like shudder of “Evil By Nature” with his inimitable growl. And “Eastside” has a certain charm with its belligerent bluster and careening riffs, but these are more the exception than the rule on Aggressor. The rest, like the dreadful, f-bomb-pocked rap-and-roller “You Lost,” the thudding “Damned Nation” or the shout-along “You're Not For Me” wear their “Soulfly-ness” so far out on their sleeves you can't see the Ektomorf skin underneath. If there was really all the much to begin with.



The fact that Ektomorf have essentially made a career – and a long one at that - out of this sort of thing is downright astonishing. That they continue to do so boggles the mind.