Zoltán Farkas is a metal warrior. From Romania, he has been feeding the gods of heavy music since 1993. With several albums to his credit and a number of band members throughout the years, the guy is a true believer and I have to say, hats off to him. With the ups and downs in every career, I would expect a well seasoned composer and musician.  His band is EKTOMORF and the new album is Vivid Black by AFM records. The album starts with a very disturbing sound like if a machine is broken, and then the crunchy guitar madness comes in introducing the heavy “I'm Your Last Hope (The Rope Around Your Neck)”. At  first listen, you can hear clearly the SLIPKNOT influences and the vocal sounds very similar to Corey Taylor. Watch the video on Youtube.

We follow with “Die” and this is a punch in the face as you expect with this title. Much more like Metalcore and with touches of Punk. Pure violence and speed. Suddenly we have a small break for a melodic interlude with the luxury of backing vocals. A resource that if not used well, can mess the song's energy and make it sound too campy. I am glad it was used well on this one. The third tune is “Never Be the Same Again”. Another SLIPKNOT based tune that reminds me a lot of “Wait And Bleed”. No guitar solos so far. The next one is “I Don't Belong to You” and is heavy as fuck. Zoltan Farkas is well accompanied by guitar player Ábris Hagya with creative riffs complementing each other. However you can notice that the guys are not very keen on guitar solos and I believe this should be a must for heavy songs like this.

“Fade Away” is next and is more tamed in terms of energy. A vocal duet conducts this tune. One guttural and brutal, the other soft and melodic. It shows some creativity in the composing process and mixes a trash vibe with sprinkles of heavy melodic hard rock. We pass the halfway point with “You And Me” and you can hear that this band has a competent drummer in  Ákos Kobela. Double pedal madness and crazy fills all over this one. The songs on this album have different elements not causing the listener to be bored and justifying a 10 song album like this one.

We reach the song that names the album, or the album that names the song “Vivid Black”. Another interesting approach with crazy screams  mixed with a suffering vocal and the good bass presence from Csaba Zahorán. You can actually hear some bass lines detached from the guitar bringing the bass a little more to the front. With a Nu Metal style guitar riff (remember HELMET?), we are presented with “The Best of Me”, and no, it is not a ballad. Another solid tune with great energy and as heavy as you can handle. I really do not know why only one band comes to my mind when I try to find a similar style to compare with this band.

We reach “You Belong There” and we get another melodic vocal interludes sprinkled in the song in a failed attempt to soften it. The album is well mixed and produced but you can hear some small unpolished moments. We end our journey with “REM” ( not the band) which can stand for “rapid eye movement”. The song starts with an eerie vibe and a distorted bass line leading the riff. The band also drank from the fountain of TOOL with a dystopian melody and some nightmarish riffs. I believe this may be the best of the bunch of a good album.

You can hear some influences from heavy hitters of the genre but the main influence has to be SLIPKNOT. Some songs sound very close to a SLIPKNOT song and there is nothing wrong with that as I believe this is not a GRETA VAN FLEET kind of scenario. All tunes are well composed and new and old ideas are used in each of them providing different flavours. I would only add a killer guitar solo in every song.