Review Summary: Ektomorf's What Doesn't Kill Me... is a solid contender for the best thrash/groove record of the year
Ektomorf is a Hungarian modern thrash outfit. They started out in 1994 and released their debut
Hangok in 1996. From there on, Ektomorf has successfully played their groove orientated modern thrash metal till this day and with
What Doesn't Kill Me..., this band shows no signs of letting-up.
In its nature,
What Doesn't Kill Me... is a rather typical thrash/groove album, but the sheer quality of it raises it above many of its contemporaries. The album's main qualities are the strong and consistent rhythm section and the vocals of the band's leader and mastermind Zoltán Farkas. First, I'll start with the rhythm section. What this thrash album has that many others lack is the fact that on
What Doesn't Kill Me... the bass is heavy and audible. The extremely down-tuned and heavy bass is present on every song and it creates a very nice atmosphere for the songs. Whether the tempo be slow or fast, the bass is always great. While the bass is really good throughout the whole album, the best bass part is definitely in the song "I Can See You" where it is simply crushing. The other vital party of the rhythm section, aka the drums are also darn great. No repetitive overuse of double bass is to be found here, and in fact, there's almost no double bass at all, as this album mostly features thrashy snare and cymbal patterns. The combination of drums and bass create what is an excellent rhythm section on this album. Relentless and never boring, the rhythm section is definitely a standout on this album.
Now to the vocals of Zoltán Farkas. With 9 studio albums and 15 years with Ektomorf under his belt, one would expect that the vocals of Farkas are a bit weak or at least lower in quality then they were a couple of years ago, especially regarding that Ektomorf is a band that loves to play live and they do it often. But no, Farkas' vocals are still one of the best in the whole genre. His raspy vocals and powerful screams, that are a delight to listen to, march through the album relentlessly. Also a thing that makes Ektomorf's music a lot more exciting is the European accent of Farkas and the overall European feel of the band. Farkas' accent is very recognizable and is pretty fun to listen to.
The lyrics on
What Doesn't Kill Me... are all written by Farkas, and mostly talk about discrimination, pain, anger, society and hope. The main reason why Farkas has decided to write these kind of lyrics, talking about pain, anger and hope, is because he was discriminated and had to confront racism a lot at the beginning of his career due to the fact he has a gypsy background. Luckily though, Farkas is a strong, determined person and he didn't let that get to him. And while Farkas has earned his respect, mostly the hard way, he still writes lyrics which talk about anger, pain, discrimination, hope, and will to live, because that is what matters to him and you got to respect that.
Now there is one member that I haven't talked about so far and that is the guitarist Tamás Schrottner. He doesn't do anything all that special on this album, but his downtuned, groove filled riffs are great. There is nothing too flashy in Schrottner's playing, but the riffs are still sufficiently interesting and the heavy, continuous picking of the strings is delivered very well.
Ektomorf has had a nice career so far and have gotten themselves some reputation, mostly in Eastern Europe countries, by being one of the best and most credible thrash/groove acts around. But there is one thing that has haunted them for most of their career. There is a sufficient amount of people who don't live in Europe and don't know anything about Ektomorf. And these people, upon hearing them, have quickly mislabeled Ektomorf as a blatant rip-off of Soulfly. The thing is that while Ektomorf does take influences from Sepultura ( they take influences, they don't rip them off) and while their sound is very reminiscent to the one of Soulfly, people seem to miss the fact that while Soulfly was founded in 1997 by Mr. Max Cavalera, Ektomorf had already been playing for 3 years and when Soulfly released their debut, Ektomorf had already recorded two albums before them. Ektomorf's signature thrash sound that truly is similar to Soulfly in some aspects has stayed pretty much the same since the day Ektomorf was founded, so there is no need to approach Ektomorf with thoughts of them being a rip-off band, because they most definitely are not a one.
With
What Doesn't Kill Me..., Ektomorf prove once again that they are one of the best thrash/groove acts around in Europe. Heavy, downtuned riffing, great vocal performance and a steady rhythm section make this album a great and fun listen to anyone who likes metal.
