Aghora
Formless

After five years from the previous "Aghora," dated 2001, Aghora, a band founded by the highly technically skilled guitarist Santiago Dobles, returns to the market with the album "Formless."

During these five years, however, some changes occurred in the Aghora camp, the first of which was the departure of bassist Sean Malone, who was impressively replaced by Alan Goldstein (a bassist with a completely different style compared to his renowned predecessor); another significant departure was that of singer Danishta Rivero, who was replaced by another young woman with a jazz background: Diana Serra.

It's unfortunate to note right away that, while this "Formless" is a formally perfect record, it clearly loses in comparison to the previous eponymous album. Despite presenting itself as aggressive, powerful, and technical, mostly featuring riffs derived from bay area thrash (all enveloped in an almost exaggerated technical/executional atmosphere), it loses all those jazzy elements and the seventies prog rock influences that made "Aghora" a true masterpiece of jazz-metal.

Of course, not everything is wrong with this album; indeed, there are some truly well-executed tracks, such as "Atmas Heave," boasting aggression and power, alternating extremely atmospheric moments in the bridge. Another great track is certainly "Garuda," where past influences are strong and for almost three minutes, one is catapulted into a relaxing atmosphere with oriental tones; "Fade" also convinces thanks to Diana's extremely soft interpretation, contrasting with a chameleonic melodic base that shifts from calm moments to decidedly harder ones. However, while listening, there is an impression that, excluding a few songs, all the others "mimic" one another, resembling each other greatly and lacking their own soul.

It is therefore impossible to speak too highly of this album which, despite being well-produced and even better played than its predecessor, suffers from a lack of originality: be aware this does not mean you will listen to a bad record, but you will hear a platter that at more than one point will seem static and all the same.

P.s. A round of applause for the work of the bassist who, besides proving capable of keeping up with a war machine like Sean Reinert, is also comfortable delivering truly spectacular solos, enriching various parts of songs that otherwise would have suffered even more from a lack of originality.

Tracklist

1) Lotus

2) Atmas Heave

3) Moksha

4) Open Close The Book

5) Garuda

6) Dual Alchemy

7) Dime

8) 1316

9) Fade

10) Skinned

11) Mahayana

12) Formless

13) Purification