Ektomorf – Vivid Black
Release Date: 8th December 2023
Label: AFM Records
Order/Stream
Genre: Groove Metal
FFO: Machine Head, Soulfly, DevilDriver.
Review By: Jeff Finch
Groove metal: the name alone conjures up thoughts of riffs, headbanging, moving, and just all around having fun while jamming. For Hungarian stalwarts Ektomorf, the name groove is not to be taken lightly; these guys know how to do so at a high level, as evidenced by their output thus far, now reaching 17 albums and over 30 years. With such a career under ones belt, anytime new music is dropped is cause for celebration and, for the most part, Vivid Black earns the celebration, as it sounds like a band with a lot of life left to give, if some changes to be made.
As a new listener to Ektomorf, pardon any ignorance that comes from this review, but after jamming this record front to a back a few times, there are a lot of similarities with bands I have listened to in the past. Take, for example, the first two tracks of the album, I’m your last hope (The Rope Around Your Neck) and Die: immediately, from the riffs to the vocals, these guys sound like Machine Head, almost eerily to the point I’d swear that Robb Flynn made a guest appearance on this record. They’re heavy, they’re fast, the riffs pummel, the vocals are that patented shout/yell/sing, and it sounds really well done. In keeping with the thematic elements of ‘this sounds familiar,’ some of the riff structures and beats on the track Never Be the Same Again sound like vintage Static-X; upon first listen, the riffs seemed distantly related to that bands’ hit Push It. Again, no judgment here, the fact that the songs are able to generate that familiarity is, at least this listener, an important part of getting one actively engaged with the music.
You And Me and Vivid Black continue with the Nu-Metal appreciation, as the former brings about thoughts of both Machine Head and Static-X, along with Slipknot, as the vocals on the former could have been written and recorded with Iowa in mind, the drum fills technical and pummeling, the riffs heavy and energy nothing short of intense. The latter, meanwhile, is probably the heaviest track on the record, downtuned, in your face aggression interspersed with slower, more subdued moments where the vocals are closer to spoken word, the Hungarian accent picked up a little more noticeably than the rest of the album.
Not all is well on the record, however, as there are some cringe inducing moments that derail some tracks and the flow of the album. Fade Away features clean vocals that are, for lack of a better term, just plain bad. While they do sound a bit like Corey Taylor during the verses, the chorus is awful, the clean vocals just not enjoyable at all, temporarily derailing a pretty solid song, otherwise. Towards the midpoint of the track, there’s a pummeling mini-breakdown, while the end of the song goes full tilt, double bass coupled with harsh vocals and gnarly riffs, keeps it from being a total disappointment. And finally, on track REM, the slow, bass driven melody is well done, but, once again, the clean vocals just don’t work. The vocalist doesn’t have that kind of voice to make this type of song succeed, but the overall dark vibe of the song is excellent, so there is a plus side to it, as a whole.
Overall, however, this new one from Ektomorf is a pretty solid affair. A great deal of the music present is pure groove metal, through and through, the ferocity abundant and the energy easy to pick up on; whether intentional or not, there are a great many moments on this record that resemble other bands in terms of their composition and sound, but Ektomorf still manages to maintain their own identity within those tracks. The tracks that don’t hit as hard are unfortunate, but easy to fix; either less use of clean vocals or reworking the track so the music and vocals are forced to work in tandem, because those vocals by themselves will not go far.
(3.5 / 5)
