Needless - Heresy (2019)^{Release ID: 35270}

The Review Draft feature this month served its purpose well. Needless are a completely new offering to me and one that probably need a hall of judgement submission (no, I am not) as they offer an intriguing if not altogether functional slant to thrash/death/progressive metal. To start with, the band are Hungarian and although noted as being active since 2004, it was not until 2019 that they released their debut full length.

Heresy is an energetic if not jerky affair in the main. It flits from idea to idea as though alluding to a level of progression that the band are not quite capable of achieving. Time changes are not always the smoothest of transitions (and I get that they are not always supposed to be) with the sense being that things are just piled on top of one another as opposed to being arranged in a clever and challenging way.

Although it lacks finesse, the album is by no means unpleasant to listen to. I will not pretend to like all the eight tracks on here, the level of progressive influence makes the album too jarring an experience overall for me to be able to highlight individual tracks as being standout moments. That having been said the technical prowess aligns on enough occasion for sections of songs to shine (Sky Burial, for example has some memorable sections). Vocalist Ádám Forczek is consistent throughout and has an aggressive yet ultimately predictable style that does not entirely do justice to the more accomplished guitar work of Fogl Botond and Tamás Bárány by way of comparison.

I would describe this as "grown up" technical/progressive - melodic - death/thrash metal that is being done by teenagers not yet at a level of maturity that matches the ambition of the group. Album number two just dropped in 2022 I noticed during my research for this review and I would not be averse to checking that out to hear if they have polished the edges of their song writing prowess enough to really be able to shine.