Photo report from the concert (photos by McAllen)
The EKTOMORF concert joined the line of concerts one must attend, where writing a report is essentially pointless. Because the subjective element is not familiar songs, not singing along with the hall, not stagecraft, not even technique, but drive and the overall atmosphere.
I may be displaying ignorance, but among Hungarian rock bands it is precisely EKTOMORF who have achieved the greatest renown. What do they play — having now heard them at a concert, I can say that the band plays too technically to be called plain hardcore, yet not complex enough to be called nu-metal. The closest band that comes to mind in terms of genre is SOULFLY. They also share a connection to folklore — just as Max Cavalera draws on Brazilian folklore, brothers Zoltán and Csaba draw on their own: they are half Romani, half Hungarian. I will deliberately not recount the band's history, and for good reason: 2 years ago our portal conducted an interview with the band, and in my view it gives almost exhaustive information about them. You can read it by following this link.
The band currently has 6 albums; the latest — Instinct — was recorded last year, and it was in support of that album that the band gave concerts in russia.
The support act was a band from Penza — fairly well known in alternative circles, and moreover BEZUMNYE USILIYA (that is who they were) were presenting their new album. What can I say — the band's material remains what it was, which is to say essentially fairly uninteresting. They still play quite well technically, but in the musical dimension I see no movement whatsoever — which is characteristic of quite a large number of bands on our alternative scene.
Somewhere midway through the support band's set, several people spotted Zoltán and EKTOMORF guitarist Tamás passing through the inner bar. Honestly, we were not merely pleasantly surprised — we were astonished that the musicians gave autographs to everyone who wanted one (and people from the hall started approaching at lightning speed), and also posed for photos with all who wished — a number of these photos you can see on the second page of the photo gallery. And all of this without a single negative expression — friendly, cheerful faces. In general the guys turned out to be very approachable, and very shortly we saw them on stage.
Hardcore bands rarely give long concerts, and this case was no exception. The setlist was not short, but due to the characteristic features of the genre the songs themselves are brief. After the intro, "Set Me Free" from the latest album flew out instantly — followed by three more songs, all from it. In total, of the 14 songs performed by the band that day, 7 were from Instinct, 3 from the preceding Destroy, the same number from its predecessor I SCREAM Up To The Sky, and one song from the 2000 album.
For the encore a surprise had been prepared — "Roots Bloody Roots", a SEPULTURA cover, which the entire hall sang along to.
In general the concert proceeded in a lively atmosphere — the hall was fairly spacious, with room for those who wanted to mosh. Stage-divers were literally not coming down off the stage — and here I will say one thing: it is one thing to climb up and jump, quite another to climb up and hug the musicians and shake around on stage. The stage is for the band, not the audience — that is my view on stage-divers. I have been to dozens of concerts, and the only one where diving was appropriate and even in its own way necessary was the ONKEL TOM concert on 12 November 2005. It gets in the musicians' way: some do not show it, while others threaten to deal with the problem physically, as Mille Petrozza did at the KREATOR concert in May 2005 after having his microphone knocked away twice. There were no such incidents here, but people clearly overdid the jumping — or perhaps it is a necessary part of such a concert and I am missing something, but I doubt my view will change.
The sound was decent. A notable feature: Zoltán speaks many of the lyrics rather than sings them, particularly at the start of songs. But the foundation is, of course, his signature growl — or rather the rough male shout characteristic of hardcore.
In general, what is there to describe — at such sessions one simply needs to be present. I recommend the photo gallery once more.
Report by Alan
Photo report from the concert (photos by McAllen)
Special thanks to SPIKA MERCHANDISING for the accreditation provided.
Setlist: Intro Set Me Free Show Your Fist Instinct Fuck You All Sunto Del Mulo You Leech I Know Them Destroy I Will Burn Fire Tear Apart Serial Men
— encore — Roots Bloody Roots (SEPULTURA cover) Holy Noise