Credit where credit is due, Hungary’s Ektomorf have been playing their version of Soulfly’s 1998 self titled album for nearly a decade now with little sign of letting up of changing style five albums in, even with a label change from Nuclear Blast to AFM Records.
At least you know exactly what you are getting with an Ektomorf record, from Zoltán Farkas’ heavily accented Max Cavalera impersonation down to the down tuned, jumpdafukup nu metal riffage, the recipe has been exactly the same for every album, “. Though the band has at least dropped their tribal injections (cos, that would have been taking the Soulfly mimicry too far wouldn’t it?), they still seem intent on delivering varying versions of Soulfly’s “Eye for an Eye”, “No Hope = No Fear” and “Bleed” (What Doesn’t Kill Me… even features a Fred Durst like rap metal vocal appearance for “Sick of it All”).
If you heard Destroy or Instinct, you have already heard What Doesn’t Kill Me…even though more straight forward, it’s the same tired if well produced, hefty grooves played with the same thick guitar tone and chest beating lyrics. Admittedly, as with Instinct, I enjoy the thick guitar tone and some of the tracks like “I Can See You”, “New Life” and “Scream” ( the only track with any sort of tribal/ethnic injection) have a head bobbing, satisfying simplicity and chunk to them, but its still such a ridiculously plagiarized sound (though not as much any more with Soulfly at least developing some more thrash and punk influences), but as with all previous Ektomorf releases, why listen to a second rate rip off when I already own Soulfly and Roots?
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