Need – Siamese God

There is a saying about Greece in foreign countries who goes like ”It’s all Greek to me”. Maybe because most of the times the language is quite hard to understand. Need from capital Athens not only don’t sound like Greeks, but musicaly wise, they don’t also think like Greeks. Only one listen to their second album ”Siamese God” will convince you about the above. An album which doesn’t only exceed by far the level of their quite interesting debut ”The Wisdom Machine”, but it can also mark the beginning of a bright career for the charismatic quartet, as far as people have open ears and admire good music of course.

Need is exactly built to fit to my personal likings of pure metal sound. First of all they are god damn heavy. Combining the heaviness of Metallica, Pantera and Nevermore, the progression of Dream Theater and Tool, the poetry inside the music of Savatage and Fates Warning and in terms, the diversity of bands like Meshuggah or Fear Factory, the result is simply amazing. The guys are making a pure statement of what soul and open mind is on this album. Songs that either make you bang your head towards all directions or even paralyze your senses and make you just sit and observe the sounds coming out of the speakers.

Ravaya causes constant orgasms to his six string guitar, pulling its guts out with his gigantic riffs and the bizarre changes in rhythms where needed, followed by the exceptional rhythm section of K.K. (not Downing) on bass and Peter on drums, which is a strong card to the band’s whole effort to create something different and special. Jon V. is a singer who won’t overreact by reaching high-pitched sequences, he’s always to the point, making his voice sound like velvet in tracks such as ”Inbetween”, the most emotional moment of the album and generally being the driving force to the Need vehicle.

From the first notes of ”Rainy Pieces Of Hell”, your neck is going to do the left-right and up-down trip many times. ”Soon” is one of the cleverest songs ever to be written the last years, while Fates Warning would be dying to write a song like ”Lie Before You Sleep”, simply because they can’t. ”Flesh Machines” is a pure Nevermore worship, which doesn’t mind me (and I hope everyone else) at all, the title track is one of the most experimental ones, ”Warning” shines for its progressive feeling, proving that aggression and melody can fit when there is potential, maybe that’s why a video clip was shot for this.

In general the album is a masterpiece, the last two tracks ”C.M.R.” and ”The Lesson” close this journey to a great new discovery with the most convincing way. I can state in pure sense that it is the best Greek album I have heard since Septic Flesh did ”Sumerian Daemons” and many people should try their best and may not be enough, to reach such level of creativity and point in music. Praised be the ideas of each individual member, they listen to excellent groups and they produce excellent music. The next one will get a 10 from me if they go like this. For the time being, this is half a step before perfection. Listen and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.