Review Summary: With Formless, Aghora have created an album with many textures that generally keeps the listener interested throughout.
There are always bands that go unnoticed and are forgotten while the popular bands reap the rewards of their latest studio marvel. Examples of these popular albums are
The Blackening,
Ascendancy, and
Blood Mountain to name a few. While these releases are not always bad, especially the latter, the novelty of the album usually wears off after a few weeks as the media rave about the next big thing. Through this whole cycle, the average metalhead never looks below the surface of the metal pool, and never finds the buried treasure in the depths. Florida Progressive Metal band
Aghora fit this description perfectly.
In the year of 2006, I was a regular reader of UK magazine
Metal Hammer and not once did this band or album get a mention. If they did, then it would have been part of a small list written in tiny font on a part of the magazine that no one reads. In 2008, after delving into Jazz-Metal in the form of
Cynic, I stumbled across a band under the name of
Aghora, and promptly went to their Myspace page to sample some songs. I listened to
1316 first, and was stunned by it’s flirtations with Jazz coupled with metal ferocity and with soothing vocal lines over the top. I thought that this band was only Jazz-Metal, but that was only the surface of their sound.
Aghora play a rather strange hybrid. What I thought was Jazz-Metal was actually
another fusion of the aforementioned subgenre (a bit like Cynic) with Latino-tinged – and sometimes spacey - clean parts which gives
Formless a unique atmosphere. This influence is also evident in the song names:
Mahayana and
Garuda both imply some Latino touches, the first half of the latter being the embodiment of said feature. In this way alone they could be considered Prog, but they utilise this switch between heavier Metal parts and more sweet-sounding clean parts in a way that implies evolution throughout each song. Other Prog attributes this album showcases is a constant but flowing atmosphere – that is, the feeling of being stuck in a valley of both falling rocks and beautiful streams – which, when combined with a penchant for odd time signatures, gives them an edge almost like prog metal gods Dream Theater.
The link to Cynic has been there since their self-titled debut album, in which Sean Reinert and Sean Malone (both from Cynic) played all drums and bass, respectively. This time around, Malone has opted out of Bass duties, but Reinert has continued playing the drums, but only on some of the tracks due to the addition of another drummer, Giann Adryen. This may be why the album has traits of Cynic’s sound present, such as the technical basslines and spacey parts.
Formless is bookended by short atmospheric Spanish tracks that set the mood for the entire album, and make use of Latino guitar technique, percussion and scales. There’s even some background chanting going on during album closer
Purification. After opener
Lotus fades away,
Atmas Heave blasts in, with a complete contrast to what you had previously heard: a very thrashy riff complete with shred fills. It is clear, even after hearing so little of the album, that
Formless is filled with variation. The song continues to switch between chug, Tech-y riffs, and undulating soft parts with a lush cut off time signature, which, on a repeat, gets joined by some great slap bass – quite odd for metal - in the second half of the song before ending as it started with the thrash riff.
Open Close the Book is almost Meshuggah like with its steady but pummelling groove, a feature also used in the outro of
Moksha and 7 minute instrumental
Dime which is a tribute to famous guitarist Dimebag Darrell – a fitting tribute at that, with every instrument showing their potential.
As you have probably picked up,
Formless is no ordinary metal album. The aforementioned unique atmosphere is propelled by frontwoman Diana Serra’s powerful smooth vocals which bring a significant amount of beauty to the table, much like Lacuna Coil’s Cristina Scabbia. She shines the most throughout the relatively clean
Fade (especially towards the end, reminds me of Paul on Cynic’s Traced In Air) and the verse sections of
Moksha which feature some of the most interesting melodies on the album. Another feature that sets this album apart is the bass. New bassist Alan Goldstein is easily enough to allow the band to keep its “tech metal” tag with basslines flying out over the mix fairly frequently, but especially prominent during the more inventive clean sections. This use of bass in clean sections is very prominent in the bass fills (and a slap bass freakout near the end) on
Dual Alchemy, which also features some cool start stop heavy riffs on the guitars. Another couple of shining moments are in the first and fourth minutes of 12 minute epic
Formless, which features what can almost be called bass shredding. However, in songs such as
Open Close the Book his basslines are almost unheard because of the guitar’s tone which chugs almost relentlessly through, briefly pausing for some dreamy cleans. As well as these dreamy cleans, the guitarists like to shred. Short instrumental
Garuda features some very impressive wankery during the second half, and during Moksha, in both a clean section and a heavy section. The solos are never too long and only used when they fit which shows some restraint.
The Negatives: Despite the albums constant change of texture to add interest, there are a couple of letdowns:
- Some of the guitar parts are played so low which, when combined with the guitar tone, sounds like a kind of mush-chug in which it is hard to hear the separate notes being played. If this was only used for a few seconds then it wouldn’t be worthy of noting but it is often sustained for too long therefore gets a little tedious. An example of this is during Atmas Heave after the opening thrash riff – I would only be able to tell what the notes are after looking at an official guitar tab.
- While Diana Serra’s vocals may be beautiful, her vocal lines are quite similar throughout the album which can be seen as monotonous, but in my eyes it gives
Formless a unique sound as a whole.
To summarise:
With
Formless,
Aghora have created an album with many textures that generally keeps the listener interested throughout. The way fairly brutal riffs intertwine with the most beautiful clean passages is a mesmerising experience which, despite a couple of flaws, is really enjoyable. From the long songs to the shorter ones, they add little spices of different genres and instrumental technicality to produce an album that is well worth your time and money.
Positives:
-- Change of texture
-- Wide influence
-- Spacey Cleans
-- Instrumental Technicality
Negatives:
-- Mush-Chug parts
-- Mostly similar vocal melodies
-- Can be hard to digest at 13 tracks
4/5
.
