Ektomorf – ‘Vivid Black Album Review

Spread the love

Metal

AFM Records

Release Date – December 8th 2023

Review By Smudge

A word of warning – this album contains some of the most brutal and aggressive music I’ve ever heard. Lead singer/guitarist Zoltan Farkas went through some pretty serious issues with the awful death of his mother after a long, painful and protracted illness which resulted in his depression, so we’re hearing his pain. He admitted there was no light left in his world and he truly hated everything around him. There’s nothing nice or beautiful the songs are all about hate pain and anger. Hopefully, Zoltan has used this record as catharsis, and I truly wish him all the best.

Once the opener, ‘I’m Your Last Hope (The Rope Around Your Neck)’ gets going it is blatantly obvious that Farkas was monumentally pissed off with the world. The music is dark, heavy, angry and brutal and he spits out the lyrics with a vitriol I haven’t heard in ages. ‘Die’ just goes for the throat and rages along on Daniel Szabo’s rapid beat and again Farkas raises both middle fingers on the vocals. ‘Never Be The Same Again’ brings a Slipknot vibe and grooves plenty along with razor-sharp slashing guitars before the absolute bludgeon of ‘I Don’t Belong To You’ goes into hardcore territory. ‘Fade Away’ puts the brakes on a bit on a superb chunk of chug with both clean and harsh vocals then ‘You And Me’ is a jagged stop/start banger before the title track gives us a dark, doomy grinder. It’s back to the Slipknot thing on ‘The Best Of Me’ before the immense ‘You Belong There’ and the final death/doom of ‘REM’.

Farkas is lucky in that he has a release for his emotions rather than getting himself into trouble. At times this is an uncomfortable listen, but you have empathy for the poor bloke because you can hear and feel the pain in his voice. Hopefully, he has got some closure with this release. It’s dark and angry but full of emotion and passion too and as my counsellor says it’s unhealthy to swallow these feelings due to the cortisol hanging around causing stress. I had a shout and scream along with some of the songs on here and felt a whole lot better.

Track List –

1 – I’m Your Last Hope (The Rope Around Your Neck)

2 – Die

3 – Never Be The Same Again

4 – I Don’t Belong To You

5 – Fade Away

6 – You And Me

7 – Vivid Black

8 – The Best Of Me

9 – You Belong There

10 – REM

You May Also Like

More From Author

+ There are no comments

Add yours