Ektomorf - Retribution - Salsa invasion

Retribution is the 9^th Studio Album by the Hungarian Groove Metal band Ektomorf . I came to discover about this band when frontman  Zoltan accepted my request in facebook. I had loads of suggestions to add people as friend and he was one of the people whom I added because he was screaming with the guitar on in his profile picture to be honest. I followed all the updates about this record. As far I know they are touring currently. This is a good listen to make yourself some salsa with mosh in it.

The album starts with the extremely groovy one “You Can’t Control Me”, this song is a monstrous punching machine on your face with words. This one is absolutely for people who get controlled by others, I hope this song might inspire you and say them on face YOU CAN’T CONTROL ME. The song structure is so much friendly to ears that you can feel the groove from the first minute. After this monstrous start to the album “Ten Plagues” roll in and kind of reminded me of old Sepultura with Max in vocals. This one connected with me much with the drums as they sound so damn good and gives you all kind of feel just to jump around. Next is “Face Your Fear”, which is a song about facing your fear and the words makes some absolute sense. I loved the structure and the way the vocals is delivered from mood to mood and from the lower level to high that maintains the exact expression the band is expressing. “Escape”, some extremely groovy feel exist in this song. I bet you can dig this song before a fight to keep you motivated and sing along ESCAPE, I DON’T WANNA SEE YOUR FACE! And beat the shit out of everyone. “Who The Fuck You Are”, this one is my favorite. When the song rolls in with “YOU ARE A FUCK FACE” , you  know this is your song. You won’t mind screaming YOU ARE JUST A PIECE OF SHIT as well. This song actually reminds me of many assholes whom I want to beat up. Moving on with “Numb & Sick” , this one features Cristian of Ill Nino. This song absolutely combines the groovy atmosphere with the soft chorus from Cristian in a brilliant way. Sometimes in our life we can’t act, and all we can say “I KNOW YOUR FACE/YOU MAKE ME HATE YOU”. Fuck! This band is awesome.

I would say this is the second phase of the album that starts with “Lost & Destroyed”, the intro of the song really touched the core of my heart and the words absolutely hit me hard. It’s always amazing when you can relate with songs. The melodic part of the band is expressed in the song and they are good in it, followed by another brilliant song “Souls Of Fire”. After a bit of emotional connection the perfect song rolls in, “I Hate You”, again back to the grooving. “Watch Me”, “Mass Ignorance”, ”Save Me”, “Whisper” ; kept the torture on with some intense riffs and some bitter truth . When the last track rolled in, I had to check is it really the same band. An acoustic number bitches! “Collapsed Bridges”, this one is on replay mode for long time now. All I hear is “When you  left me, I could not cry/ Now am here in the other side/ I can fly with broken wings…..” . This song became so close to heart so quickly that already tears…... So much of pain and feeling is expressed in the song can be felt if you ever have loved someone with heart.

I finish off here; I think I should start writing short reviews now. I talk a lot. (sic) .

My rating -3.8/5 

Iced Earth - Plagues of Babylon- Discovering it

"Plagues of Babylon" is the eleventh studio album by the American heavy metal band Iced Earth. What? Eleventh! Honestly I never paid attention to the kind of music Iced Earth played as I made something imaginary by noticing their dressing attire which is typical Heavy Metal. While browsing some albums in youtube I decided to just check out the new album as I saw many people reviewing it. What I was expecting from the album was some heavy grungy beats, insane vocals, a bit aggressive, groovy, some crunchy riffs, melody at its best and amazing song structure. Guess what, the album had everything in it but in Iced Earth’s way. Let’s get into it right? Wear your boots, jeans, bullet belts, leather jackets and let’s roll.

The album starts its journey with the title track "Plagues of Babylon" which is quiet a risk as you want your listener to at least reach half of the album for experiencing the title track. But the confidence in class and experience of almost 30 years being in the scene is a huge exceptional region of putting the title track in the beginning. The track carries a strong vibe of mental preparation before war and which clicked in my mind and I was hooked into it from the first very second. The song positively makes connection with you and you actually get on a horse and start fighting in the war in your subconscious. The solo and the different variation in the sound almost made it heavenly as the vocals hit on your face specially with “Unleash the plagues of Babylon…”. Next is "Democide" which again keep some space in front of you to prepare the plot for enjoying the upcoming destructive piece of music. The riffs are so insanely crunchy that the whole body starts moving and some sort of follows the in out combination of vocals and riffs. "The Culling" suddenly rolls in before you could sort out how the next song would be. The lyrics of this song really heated me up as more than the other elements my focus was on what the song is saying.

I really loved the way the band played with tempos with some insanely crunchy riffs and peaceful melodic solos. "Among The Living Dead", "Resistance", "The End?", fell much into the same zone of arrangement. The variation in vocals, riffs, tempos quietly interlink with your mind and body. "If I Could See You" is one of my favorite, it’s a peaceful song with insanely well written by Schaffer. The solo part just gives some pinches near the heart and you will feel like you are top of a mountain feeling the speedy cold breeze. "Cthulhu" for me is the most well arranged song; the song structure is so much complicated but yet expressed in the best way.

The album wraps up with an insane outro FUCK YOUR COUCH MOTHERFUCKER , before delivering some peaceful but destructive songs like "Peacemaker", my favorite "Parasite" ,"Spirit of the Times" and for me "Highwayman" is at the perfect position as after listening to the album for almost hour you need a groove and the song sings the feel of good bye, I only can hear I AM STILL ALIVE! The outro is a relaxation to the listeners after bearing the guys expressing their wicked stories for a hour. So they bid goodbyes with some fun. HaHa, Okay now my legs are sweating, I am now going to enjoy the whole discography of the band. If I would have known this band at least few years back I could have done some comparison with old records. But past is past and lets focus on present as a fresh stuff. 

Tracks that need to be in your playlist – Plagues of Babylon , The Culling , If I Could See You, Parasite

My rating – 4.4/5