by Eduardo Rivadavia

Ektomorf's wholesale worship of Max Cavalera's Soulfly has already been exhaustively documented, and their apparent inability to -- or indifference about -- stepping out from under this stylistic shadow gains another chapter in 2007's frankly reverential Outcast. Of course, this being a year in which Soulfly didn't release an album of their own, perhaps the boys in Ektomorf are simply providing a much needed service to heavy metal music consumers -- just like any other quality cover band out there. Whatever the case, after punching in with Outcast's utterly predictable title track (yet another retread of Sepultra's "Roots Bloody Roots" or the 'fly's "Eye for a Eye"), the Hungarians dive into a more generalized but, no less archaic, nu-metal blueprint based largely on Slipknot and the signature Ross Robinson "dirty" guitar sound for tracks like "I Choke" and "I'm Against" (containing a very Cavalera-like cry of "Fuck this sheet!"). Momentary flashes of individual thought do threaten to emerge within the gypsy-styled intro to "Ambush in the Night" and the mostly acoustic, faux-sitar-laden "Who Can I Trust," but it's all so little, compared to the inescapable Soulfly-isms dominating material like "We Rise," "Leave Me Alone," and "I Confront My Enemy." And even the frequent elements of Eastern melodicism which crop up throughout (and dominate the ethereal "Chamunda") were probably themselves inspired by Soulfly's own immersion in similar regional music types on their most recent outing. Sigh -- what else can one say? Ektomorf are ultimately pretty good at what they do -- too bad it's essentially what someone else does, and they're just warming up the leftovers. [The CD was also released with a bonus track.]