Needless – Premonition
Release Date: 30th May 2025
Label: Inertial Music
Bandcamp
Genre: Progressive Death Metal, Thrash, Death Metal.
FFO: Opeth, Atheist, Vektor.
Review By: Andy Spoon
Hungarian progressive death metal act Needless is set to release their forthcoming album, Premonition, on May 30th on Inertial Music. Overall, I thought that the album was vocally-interesting and had guitar parts which I found to be interesting and captivating. I am not certain if it checks every box for me, but I really believe that fans of progressive death metal ought to check out Premonition for the mixed-influence performance, guitar leads, and varied attack in the vocal department. It’s not going to reach everyone, but progressive extreme metal is just something that divides a room, anyways.
The main element on this album that I really enjoyed was the tonal and melodic harsh vocals. Very few vocalists have the ability to give a gritty tone that offers a melodic note on top of being extremely gritty and visceral. I think that bands like In Flames or some of the heavier sludge rocks bands have embraced this type of vocal delivery. When combined with an older-school progressive death metal vibe, Needless tends to show that there is a melodic base for the music that is turned up to 11, pushed into overdrive, rather than a harsher metal act, which is melodically toned down for the radio, you know who you are.
I think that the album is rather high energy, having numerous tracks that really keep the pace fast, rattling the saber at the listener, sometimes even dabbling into the world of power metal or Viking metal, if only for a few moments. That is only to say that the overall pace was obviously meant to be rapid and gnawing, much like a power metal act. It never really seems to cross fully into the death metal genre, comfortably, which is fine. Needless tends to have their own unique sound with the vocals, guitar leads, pacing, and synth. There’s really no direction towards traditional death metal that seems to lack anything. It just feels like something that kisses older school death metal, but doesn’t try to assimilate it, totally, what I had originally thought the album was going to be when I heard the first track. If anything, it’s progressive and experimental, to some degree. In a day and age of mixed-genre acts, I can absolutely respect what they are trying to accomplish, holistically.
That being said, the elements of the album which will give you the “most” older-school or traditional death metal are likely to be the dark, deep vocal segments where vocalist Ádám Forczek really pushes the boundaries of the music itself. I’d hate to call it heavy prog with occasional death vocals, but at times, that is what you get. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as I had previously stated that I think the vocals are a real high point on the album. For the most part, the Hungarian act is probably going to appeal to fans of Opeth and Voivod (but with quite a harsher tone), at least to my ears. I think that once you cross into the progressive genre, you don’t have to follow so many of the paths of similar bands, shaking off the chains of the “scene”.
(3 / 5)
