Every barroom brawl should be so lucky.
When barstools go flying through the air, bodies topple over beer laden tables, and wild haymakers are thrown at lunkheads who think themselves man enough to take the eventual blow, one doesn’t want to hear the dreaded drawling croon of a country western singer. No . . . barroom brawlers don’t want to get down in their funky violent way with a soundtrack more suited for drinking whiskey, bedding livestock, or hanging oneself. Barroom brawlers want to break shit and break shit good! And what music is better fit for such revelry? Anything from the catalog of Ektomorf. Go back to my review from August of 2009 in regards to the bands album What Doesn’t Kill Me, get into some fisticuffs and tell me that didn’t feel right. Now, I have something possibly even better . . . the latest from Ektomorf, a sonic dance of malevolence called Redemption.
Folks, Redemption is one brutal piece of music. Sitting in a darkened office, brooding about a new diet fueled by lack of funds, spinning this new disc . . . I found by blood pressure build beat after beat, measure after measure, venom infused vocal line after another, until I was in the foulest of mood and ready to shut that kid up from across the street once and for all. I mentioned in a past review that I could feel this bands bitterness, their anger, their injustices as if they were my own, which is a truly rare quality in music. Nothing has changed in that regard. Redemption is jam packed with violent tones, dense guitars forming the walls to Farkas Zoltan’s foundation of pain and hatred. And within all of this bitterness, there’s a message of strength overcoming the bullshit and getting through life scarred, in multiple pieces, but still alive.
Naturally, the opening track acts as a lead track should. It gets the listeners attention by socking them in the face, and then once the listener is distracted by the circling birdies, the band socks them once again. “Last Fight” is a detuned beast that chugs and grooves its way into the blood stream, infecting the listener with its destructive disease, making said listener convulse with this otherworldly possession until they too become a being of ultra-violence. And here’s the wrinkle . . . Ektomorf slip in interesting little passages this time around to break up the one-dimensionality of the last record. Kudos on this point. No more a mindless beatdown, now things become more thought out and premeditated, which is always good for an extended stay in the local prison system.
The title track and “I’m In Hate” follow suit, throbbing, pulsating groove metal numbers that continue the barroom brawl to the point where the little fillies are busting glass mugs over the heads of the combatants. But it’s “God Will Cut You Down” that acts as the culmination of all the ill will that has been growing from the first three tracks. All of three minutes long and I feel like I’ve lived a full life of violence! This tune is flat out brutal . . . heavy as a Sherman tank, dense as a wall of lead, immediate and intense, I think I found the perfect track to usher in the apocalypse. And it’s not just all of these traits that make this song so absolute . . . it’s what Ektomorf do with the dynamics. A small break at the 1:24 mark where the instruments drop out of the mix and we’re left the chugging drive of the ultra-distorted guitars, and Zoltan’s “Ugh” propel this song through the air like a jet fueled warhead aimed for the soul.
And this intensity doesn’t stop as we drop directly into “Stay Away.” Redemption is brought to you by the letters F, U, C, and K as these letters in corresponding order happen to be used in every song, and generally multiple times in every song. Image if you will, being so angry that no other word will suffice. I’m sure Zoltan could have worked in words that had more poetry, more intellect to them, but no word conveys the emotion quite like “fuck”. We’ve all been fuckin’ pissed, wanted the world to fuck themselves, and to fuck shit up . . . see? Good word. There’s no question that there’s an emotion being conveyed here.
Ready for some more brutality? “The One” is an up tempo gem that barrels down a narrow street in Pamplona, sliding, skidding, and goring itself into red sashed wearing listeners. Warning though, we have another wrinkle from the band as they inject a healthy dose of melody in the chorus and it works perfectly to break up the sonic shellacking that we’ve undergone up to this point. Channeling some of that nu-metal sway and groove, using hefty doses of thrash and speed, and all held in place by the mortar of raw emotion, “The One” may be the song that defines Redemption as an album. Not to say that you don’t need to hear the rest of the album, just that if you only have time to hear one song and need to know what Redemption is all about “The One” is . . . er, the one.
Redemption has no crossover appeal to the mainstream and it’s not supposed. The album would suck ass if it did. This record is purely meant to be a cathartic exercise for both band and listener. What impresses me the most, besides the improved musical approach of the band, is that Ektomorf can retain this type of emotional intensity album after album. Most would have burned out after one. Even more would have collapsed or killed themselves after the second. Ektomorf? Nah, these cats have made a career of being pissed off at anyone who even thinks something partially negative about them. Rock it, brothers! Don’t change a thing. I need to know that in a year and half . . . maybe two years, a new Ektomorf album will keep me busy patching holes in my drywall and out of jail for moronicide (murder of morons . . . for those who couldn’t figure that out).
--Pope
buy here: Redemption
--Pope
buy here: Redemption
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