### Aghora: Formless

#### 21/05/07 || Euthanatos

Cynic was one of the coolest bands to grace Earth-616. They were also the original masters of tech-death with clean vocals. As we all know, after releasing “Focus”, they decided to disband, so we were left with hundreds of sub-par copycats. What does this have to do with Aghora? Well, Aghora was originally formed by Sean Malone and Sean Reinert, both hailing from the defunct Cynic.

Aghora first released a self-titled album, and the sound consisted of jazzy, progressive metal with some aggressive influences and female vocals. The cool thing about it, besides having the kick ass bass player and monster drummer from Cynic, was that Aghora was indeed different, not sounding like anything that was out there. Obviously, no one took notice in the metal world.

Since then, Sean Malone has left the outfit, as did the vocalist and some other dudes. Basically, Santiago Dobles and Sean Reinert were the only ones to stick it out and regroup with a different line-up to release “Formless”.

After that top-notch history lesson, to the album. The great thing about “Formless” is that is shows Dobles’ maturity as a song-writer, the replacement members all keep up the pace of the former line-up, although Malone’s signature bass lines are obviously missed. And, truth be told, Diana Serra’s vocals are even better than of her predecessor. Very haunting and secure, nothing at all like the operatic-Tarja-wannabe stuff we’re used to; this is much more powerful, reminiscent of Lisa Gerrard from Dead Can Dance. Emotion over technique type of thing, even though technique is not lacking in young Ms. Serra (who’s only 21!).

For those Cynic-hungry folks, “Garuda” takes things right up that alley, an instrumental piece that starts out like something straight out of Gordian Knot into Cynic territory. “Dime”, another instrumental, also follows that jazzy direction, with very peculiar guitar work courtesy of Mr. Dobles.

“Fade” is a totally different track altogether, setting aside the metal and bringing in an oriental jazz rock feel to it, eventually becoming more aggressive as the song progresses. Very interesting stuff.

So to sum it up; This sounds a lot like Cynic, and it’s a shame that Malone is no longer with the band and that Reinert has also left it after recording this album. However, it does seem that these guys can keep things flowing even with these heavy losses, and this album proves it. It’s very well-written, different and doesn’t sound like anything that is out there at the moment. The progressive aspect of it never becomes boring or self-indulgent and it’s heavy enough to mostly keep things interesting. And when you have a cute, talented vocalist to top it all off, there’s no going wrong there.

The cover: It’s an artsy-fartsy painting thing. It’s actually nice. Maybe I’m turning gay, I don’t know.

7.5 people with Latin names out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2006
- Label: Season of Mist
- Website: www.aghora.org
- Band
- Diana Serra: vocals
- Santiago Dobles: guitars
- Alan Goldstein: bass
- Sean Reinert: Drums on album
- Giann Rubio: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Lotus
- 02. Atmas Heave
- 03. Moksha
- 04. Open Close the Book
- 05. Garuda
- 06. Dual Alchemy
- 07. Dime
- 08. 1316
- 09. Fade
- 10. Skinned
- 11. Mahayana
- 12. Formless
- 13. Purification