Absolute Power – ‘Needs Must When The Devil Drives’

Heavy Metal

Time To Kill Records

Release Date – October 30^th 2026

Review By Smudge Smith

When a grindcore/death metal legend forms a band with a renowned producer and several other people with a variety of musical pedigrees I didn’t know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised and this is not what I was expecting. The legend is of course Napalm Death bass banger Shane Embury, and the producer is Simon Efemey who has looked over albums by Napalm Death, Paradise Lost, The Mission and the Wildhearts. It was he who took a shit into a pitta bread that Ginger was holding. At least he is remembered for something!

The title track bursts out like a volcano erupting but don’t expect the grindcore it’s a classic metal banger that’s inspired by Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. There’s some superb axework from John Cooke and Mark Gemini Thwaite who make a formidable team. ‘Saviour’ eases back on a mid-paced dark melodic chug before the modern sounding ‘Kernschmelze’ (translated as core meltdown) rattles along on a superb rhythm and a masculine vocal from Efemey. We get a fist pumping, horn throwing anthem with ‘Stand Up And Be Counted’ which is straight out of the Priest songbook then the biggest surprise – ‘Within’ – a beautiful acoustic ballad which brings some shades of early Sabbath before the epic sounding ‘Mountain Of Hope’ brings later Sabbath to mind. ‘Insanity’ is another rattler and shows their love of NWOBHM as does ‘Praise The Fire’. Second surprise is the rollicking version of Queen’s ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ before the final cut ‘Orphans Of The Storm’ which is another epic that builds from a shimmering start to a frenzy of guitar crescendo.

I love surprises like this, and it took me back to my youth with some excellent NWOBHM style tunes. They’re not doing anything new, but they have put a real modern edge on it. It’s all here – traditional UK metal. Chest beating, horn throwing anthems with excellent twin guitar riffage and white-hot lead breaks all designed to get your head banging. It’s unapologetic metal and if you don’t like this then you don’t like metal!

Track List

Needs Must When The Devil Drives

Saviour

Kernscmelze

Stand Up And Be Counted

Within

Mountain Of Hope

Insanity

Praise The Fire

Sheer Heart Attack

Orphans Of The Storm