Groove metal is a genre that usually doesn’t find its way into my collection often. Ektomorf’s ninth studio album Retribution falls well into this category. In the past, being labeled nu-metal was a plague, but the newest record from Ektomorf is more groove and contained a hint of thrash that I was not expecting but still sounding way influenced by a nu-metal sound. Simple massive riffs make up the majority of the songs. Its simplistic heavy atmosphere is done well at times, but does become extremely redundant.

Reading into some of the criticism for this band can be a bit harsh. Referring to the band as a rip off Max Cavalera or Soulfly band could be a curse for the band, as similarities are obvious, but shouldn’t be taken so such ridiculous and angry levels. The album begins with You Can’t Control Me, a pounding simple one note riff to start off. The same tempo remains throughout unfortunately. It’s not the worst sound in the world, hell I could see myself heading to the gym and have these guys layer over their music while I worked out, but the album just stays so monotonous and doesn’t take many moments to feel creative or interesting.

I did not dislike the majority of this record. Coming out of it I could only justify with the experience being mediocre, but not an entire loss. Songs like Ten Plagues and Face Your Fear, kept a strong vibe and addictive hooking riffs to keep interest, but it lost me quick into the album to stay focused and have any sort of hope for any song to take me by storm. Numb and Sick is a track with the same style repetitive riffs, but clean singing makes up the chorus this time around. It’s not a bad track, but definitely caters to a more mainstream sound.

Souls of Fire, located towards the end portion of the album, was my most enjoyable experience. It began on a more atmospheric note, and was a bit more attractive chords played at the start. It’s a mean song filled with a great fighting attitude that grew into more thrash sound at times, and made me wish more tracks could have followed suit with this one. Ektomorf’s ninth studio album is a joy at times, but the times it is, unfortunately are too far and few. Overall the album was too simple sounding and rarely reached out to anything worth revisiting.