Destroy
[Nuclear Blast]

Do you ever miss the glory days of Sepultura? Do you ever wish that Soulfly would stick to the heavy stuff? Do you ever wish that a German band would try to recreate the best elements of those two bands? Oh, you never thought about it? Yeah, neither did I. But here's Ektomorf doing just that. And, fuck me, but they're actually doing a right good job of it.

Basically, Ektomorf take that whole Sepultura/Soulfly groove metal thing and drop most of the tribal elements. Or maybe you could say that they do the Fear Factory thing without the electronics. Either way, you know what this sounds like. It's groove thrash - simple and direct, brutal without being technical. Ektomorf wears their influences on their sleeve, but at least they borrow the best elements from those influences. They stick to the more energetic side of those bands and don't fuck around with tons of experimental tribal shit like certain other bands. Sure, there are several songs that have some of those tribal/atmospheric elements, but they are far from the focus of the music.

Ektomorf are clearly geared towards that whole groove crowd. Great, energetic grooves, hints of spirituality offset with plenty of cussing so you won't think they're total pussies (sorry, couldn't resist that little dig), they even have their own symbol (whatever). All kidding aside, Ektomorf have made a near perfect groove thrash album with Destroy. The only question is, do you like that shit? If you do, you're going to love this album. If not, this isn't going to win you over.