Instinct

Somewhere between the realms of a very bad joke and a dismal display of innocent worship lives Hungary's Ektomorf, whose only distinction in life appears to be that they've somehow made it six albums into a career dedicated to aping someone else's sound. Check out those down-tuned riffs verging on the atonal, the dry snare-drum snap and those often tribal-sounding rhythms, and finally the ragged-throated, sociopolitical rants of frontman Zoltán Farkas, and what do you have? That's right: Soulfly, with perhaps a smidgeon of latter-day Sepultura thrown in for the sake of living dangerously — whoopee! Seriously though, ignore a few, non-Max Cavalera-generated ingredients of gypsy-flavored melodicism in the title track, the rather ambitious "United Nations," or its instrumental extension "Land of Pain," and there's almost nothing on display here that the Brazilian metal legend's two main bands haven't already done before, and far better. In fact, it's nothing less than a miracle that the temperamental star and his conflict-loving manager haven't already sued Ektomorf out of existence, but then, you can't copyright an idea. So until they are touched by an original thought or stopped by a higher power, expect Ektomorf to keep mining Cavalera-isms — probably long after the man himself hangs up his combat boots, if they are as clueless as they seem. If imitation is truly the greatest form of flattery, then this is a fascinating case in point.