Needless
The Cosmic Cauldron

When I see a cover like the one on Needless’ new album The Cosmic Cualdron I just have to listen, despite the fact that the band hails from the worst place in the EU. But perhaps that is why the Hungarian band is dreaming their way to cosmic places, taking us on a sci-fi adventure. After all, sci-fi has often been a way to make comments on society that might be harder to say straight out, so sci-fi might be a good way to make social commentary when you like in a dictatorship like Needless do. At first, I figured they were something from the Transcending Obscurity label, they have a few bands with albums that have covers in the same style as this one. But it wasn’t, the style of the album is the same as said label though – but this one comes through the German label Uprising! Records.

Stylewise it is sci-fi death metal with many progressive elements, though not very similar they had me thinking of countrymen Perihelion that I reviewed a few years ago. Their cosmic metal album was very exciting, this is more down to earth in terms of style, and not as interesting from a creative perspective. But it is quite fresh, and has a personal style, something that is always important when making music. The sound is good with dynamics and depth, the vocals are not great though, only the guest vocals by Martina Horvath gets a nod of approval from me. The long playing time of almost an hour is also a little downer for me, you can not quite dream yourself away in the music and cover for that amount of time.

Unfortunately, this album doesn’t seem to be released on vinyl, and that is a shame considering that decent music along with a great cover makes it worth buying in that format but no other format. I find myself enjoying some parts of this album, while others don’t do that much for me. It is best in the penultimate track when they have the guest vocals by Horvath and a really epic song, Planet Oblivion. It is not as good as the Perihelion album I reviewed a few years ago either, so they are not the best cosmic metal band of their own country – although that might be a matter of taste as they are a bit different in style and my preference is dreamier while Needless is a more conventional band.

The Cosmic Cauldron might be worth checking out, it looks great and sounds good as well. Space adventures and cosmic stuff can never really be wrong, even when it comes from bad places.

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