I loves me some prog. And I loves me some metal. And when the opening chunks of Torn tore out of my speakers from their October 2006 The Wisdom Machine debut album, I knew I was in for a treat!
Need is metal. Need is prog. Need is Greek! After being introduced by Peter Hamer to Italian prog, the obvious next step was prog from the cradle of Eastern civilisation (and after this, I head to Hungary!). And all Signor Hamer showed me is here, in spades, in Need. Spades? The whole f*cking toolshed! Music is inclusive! It doesn’t care where you come from!
Founded in the early-00s and based in Athens, Need is John Voyager up front, George Ravaya backing up John’s vocals and leading the guitar-attack, and Anthony Hadjee contributing the Jon Lord/John Evan keyboards and his own vocals, with Stelios Paschalis (drums) and Viktor Kouloubis (bass) powering on in the engine room. They have only ever released albums (according to their Bandcamp/official discography) but that’s not a bad thing: many too much would be lost from the continuity of an album by lifting a song or two from it. But that’s prog for you.
Need cover all facets of Metal and Prog through their discography and there is no better place than the soundtrack to their live DVD “Orvam: A Song for Atlanta”. There are death growls, there is prog to the max with time-signature and sonic tropes, and there is pop- and alt-metal that you would hear on radio and music television aplenty. I would really love to have been there to experience the whole Prog Power show in 360-degrees / 3-dimensions / 100+ dB! The headphones through the computer just don’t do it justice! And the crowd were well into it- I don’t know how many Need fans were there but it sounds like there were more than a few! And doubtless many converts after the show!
We have been promised in Norchestration “another step up” from “Hegemaias: A Song from Freedom” which in itself was “the band’s most ambitious and adventurous album”. Ambitious isn’t quite the word to use, with a 21-minute title track! But, again, that’s prog for you! Multiple time-signatures, multiple movements, and works that would fill an entire album-side on their own. Avia indeed delivers from the opening bars, with a Rick Wakemanesque keyboard effect into John’s vocals. George’s guitar virtuosity, and Stelios and Viktor working off and with each other. Beckethead comes over all quasi-pop in its intro but soon wins us back over with the intricacy we’ve come to expect. Nemmortal is traditional prog with an intro that builds into layers before the onslaught of the rest of the band (here is the video).
Bloodlux promises a death-oriented theme through the title itself, and the pace it sets certainly confirms this but, as with anything else in the genre or from this band’s back-catalogue, it dissipates entirely elsewhere with no less ferocity or genius! VADIS is the second-most radio-friendly track of this set, coming in at 3’19”. But one simply doesn’t just take one work out of context of the rest of an opus! A spoken interlude over Anthony’s fingerwork is a link between the first and second acts of the record, discussing The End to which this album was dedicated; the second act being launched with the 9’28” title and core work of the whole record. Slow to start but building to a full aural and intricate crescendo on all fronts in a mesh of Tool versus Tull/Yes.
Lose yourself in the perfect Circadian pace as Stelios and Viktor build to a George and Anthony riff-out: a song many of us can relate to, in that we’ve all been too tired to make it home! But while Norchestration is the core work of the collection, Ananke is your full 18’56” of prog goodness in which to get completely tripped out and lost as the guys explore all points Shire- or Westeros-ward. Kinwind rounds it all off with a short hymnal tribute.
They’ve been doing this now for 15 years, and prove their value on the road as soon as a record is done, based on their itinerary in 2017 when they did 46 shows in North America alone, and then backed that up with another couple-dozen around Europe. Maybe the current world-situation may affect the decision to tour this record. But a Need show, as with the production values on each of their records so far, would be as huge as their records and I look forward to seeing them here when / if this pandemic wants to scale down! Norchestration is no different and January 12 won’t come soon enough!