Aghora “Formless” Review

We received our first request to review an album a few days ago, from Santiago Dobles. He sent us his new Aghora "Formless" album. Not too sure if we should review the drums or the whole production, so we decided to go for it. Being that this is our first album review, please feel free to email any comments you may have…

The album is called "Formless", but that name is fitting and not fitting. It's a great name for the sound it suggests, but the album has plenty of form. This isn't just an album, it's a well thought out journey of musical and vocal expression that holds nothing novice within it. The only band I can compare the "journey" value of the album to, is The Mars Volta.

The drumming talents of Sean Reinert and Giann Rubio make a great combination of full kit and percussive accents that continue to captivate and impress me. Sean has a way of playing in, on and around the beat with tasteful precision. He knows when to play and when not to, the hardest part about being a great drummer. There are tracks that show his jazz-funk taste as well as his love for metal. His use of the double kick is nothing shocking to me, again. There are spots where the kicks force the main rythm of the track and times where the soft tripelet patterns add just the right amount of subtle accent. His continued attack on double handed cymbal patterns is what made me love his playing to begin with and there is no lack of it on this album. The best thing about it all is that he plays exactly what the song calls for, when it calls for it. All in all, it's another fantastic performance by Sean! As long as we have mentioned knowing when to play and when not to, you can't get much better than Giann.The percussion tracks on this album are done exactly for the song and take the song to new levels, within its own melody. I have listened to this album about 11 times in 2 days and I think I might just put it on again right now.

The guitar work by Santiago would make Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Jeff Martin (The Tea Party), Robert Fripp and whatever chunky riff player you like, all shit themselves! I mean, it's absolutely unbelievable what this guy can do to a guitar. There are hard riffs, soft harmonics, screaming harmonics, ominous overtones, indian & egyptian inspired riffs and an all around "feel" that most people couldn't even begin to try and recreate.

The bass sounds on this album will also blow you away and are probably my favorite part of the album. Alan Goldstein is obviously very talented and his choice of rythms and notes are both surprising and fitting. I was reminded of Tony Levin and Bela Fleck while listening to his tracks. If you are a bass player, Alan should be one of your inspirations, if he's not already.

Last but not least, we have Diana Serra… I'm going to try and sum this up with a few adjectives. Diana's vocals are: creative, transient, calming, unpredictable, different and supported. She just knows how to sing, period! Just when you think you have the vocal melody pinned, she'll throw in a minor drop or something that adds a whole new level to the overall sound, which is already layered to perfection.

This brings me to the production of the album. Not only do the drums sound amazing, the guitar, bass and vocals are so matched and almost surreal, it makes you really listen to everything that's happening. This is possible because you can hear everything. Great job on the tracking and an amazing job on the production. Everyone who worked on the production of this album should just retire, it might be too hard to top this!