Artist: Ektomorf
Title: The Acoustic
Type: Album
Label: AFM Records
Having reviewed their first couple of Nuclear Blast offerings, I wasn’t too certain if this album was going to work, but I’m glad to say that it actually does. Now this album isn’t just a case of playing a stack of old songs without using a distortion pedal, there are 5 new tracks written especially for it, a couple of covers and the aforementioned re-recordings.
“I Know Them” is the first track on the album, and as it was the first track on ‘Destroy’, probably the first track of theirs I’d heard. Zoltán Farkas’ vocals aren’t as aggressive as they would normally be when being screamed over downtuned distorted guitars, but they still have a fair bit of sting in them. Now you’d think that “I’m In Hate” wouldn’t be as haunting as it is with the layers of acoustic guitar and whispered vocals while the lead guitar is being plucked away. The simple time keeping on the drums for “Be Free” steps up powerfully when the strumming and vocals gain intensity to great overall effect. The juxtaposition of nice and cheerful sound to the music on “Redemption” belies the rather sombre lyrics.
Having never heard the Lynyrd Skynyrd version of “Simple Man”, I can’t compare it to this one, but its easy flowing tune is far less energetic than their own material, that’s for sure. The melancholy rawness of the vocals on “To Smoulder” is a perfect example of how they need to sound when everything else is stripped down. “Folsom Prison Blues” is actually slower than the Johnny Cash original at first, but picks up nicely giving a nice twist to the original. Acoustic tracks kinda lend themselves to being forlorn love songs, even if the leads are played on semi-acoustic guitars, as it is in “Again”. Some quick strumming is employed on “Through Your Eyes” along with some powerful drumming making it the heaviest song on the album. By contrast “Fate” is the most laid back, making it even more so placing it next. The last two tracks “Stigmatized” and “Who Can I Trust” are given the acoustic treatment but you can still hear the heaviness they are used playing the songs with as they still palm mute, beat the cymbals relentlessly and shout rather than sing the vocals.
(7/10 Marco Gaminara)
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