Review by Ben for Needless - The Cosmic Cauldron (2022)

This release should be right up my alley. A melodic death album steeped in Warhammerish science fiction with imagery to match. Sadly, I've found the release to be more than a little challenging, for two reasons.

Firstly, the album chops and changes relentlessly, rarely ever giving otherwise decent sections room to thrive. Every time I hear something that really grabs me, the band move on within seconds, and often don't return. Needless live up to their name a bit, needlessly jumping from one riff to another, resulting in a fairly spasmodic outcome. If you're going to throw this many things at the wall, some of it is going to be shit, and the gold bits are likely going to be covered in it.

Secondly, speaking of spasmodic, Ádám Forczek's vocals are just as relentless and unstable. He roars, he screams, he sings, he growls, often all within the same lyrical line. It's hard enough to have memorable tracks when the music refuses to take the time to let the listener connect, but when you combine that with a completely rabid vocalist that won't shut up for a second, well... the whole thing becomes a bit of a chore.

It's a pity, because I can definitely hear an album in The Cosmic Cauldron that I would really enjoy. It's just infested with alien spores and an angry rabid space monkey. I think it says everything that my favourite track is the somewhat out of place female vocal led gothic metal ballad, that does a mighty fine Lacuna Coil impression.