Aghora (not the god or sect)

            Have you ever wondered what happens to human mind on acid? Put on headphones, put Aghora on, play it, close your eyes, and imagine the music. Acidic visions certain! Welcome to the world of Aghora.

             Aghora is a band that consists of people who had played different genres of metal music. In addition, the vocalist is after music school, so yes, her voice is crystal clear. Each of their song is a mixture of guitars, percussion, keyboard, and strange sounds, melodic and hypnotizing vocals which progressive metal is known for. The subject of my review is their debut album Aghora released in 2000.

Immortal Bliss opens the Aghora album with music similar to the Arabic kind and then goes to heavy riffs from guitars. Sometimes Rivero’s vocal part is unintelligible. Soon a guitar solo rises from the chaos still accompanied by the same riffs and percussion following with solo from a keyboard. Song ends with existential questions.

Satya starts with keyboard and throws us into Danishta Rivero loud voice. Heavy music + her vocals! I ask for more because I am not satisfied. Moreover, from time to time you can hear chorus which adds to the psychedelic character not only of the song but of the whole album. I liked the experimentation, crazy solo, great drumming here!

Transfiguration has once again Arabic instruments at the beginning. Then bass guitar enters accompanied by vocalist singing higher and higher beyond our plane of existence. This song like others in the album has slow and fast parts. I have enjoyed bass guitar, the speed at which it delivered sounds to my ears.

Frames is for me flagship of this album. It certainly deserves the title of “masterpiece”. The drums at the beginning for a long time functioned as my alarm clock melody. It really wakes people up, even the dead ones. I like the echoes during her “perplexed” line of the lyrics. Also the heavy parts make this song magical, giving away great powers of acid without the acid involved! In your face drug dealers! About halfway through the song we can hear soothing vocals very different from the first part of it. Furthermore, guitars and weird sounds add to this calm atmosphere. It’s like having two songs in one but it would be sad to separate them.

Mind’s Reality once more we have a song combing clear vocals with heavy riffs. I really don’t know what draws me near this music piece. It’s just good, with all the solos, drums, guitars and singing.

Kali Yuga has the best opening sequence in the whole album. It is a mixture of keyboard, guitars, and drums that should be taught in music schools. In one part of the song I’m pretty sure that you can hear band’s members uttering the same lyrics. More psychedelic feelings are flowing out of the endless entropy.

Jivatma starts with another Arabic rhythms and some spoken fragment from (). This song is mysterious; it hypnotizes us with the constant and same sounds. Those unintelligible words, ominous chorus in the background makes this music piece another good psychedelic song. Of course the drums and guitars are present but almost non-audible apart from the solo. Jivatma is the longest reordered song on this album (running time: 11:17) with its second half devoted to crazy guitar solos and ending with “All is bliss”.

Existence sounds like it is sad, longing for something. Hypnotizing vocals are once more present with the addition of fast and hard drumming combined with guitars. And please if someone out there knows, what makes these sounds (beyond the keyboard of course) from 4:08 to 4:20, please write it down in the comments. I want to know! This part of the song is great. And then comes the ending with constant drumming being the main part of that section.

Anngraha is the last song from the Aghora album by Aghora. It opens with a zither. I am guessing. I really can’t different instruments and know only the basic ones. The “la, la, la” parts are great but only thanks to the whole gamma of instruments playing alongside. And I hear not only percussion but maybe bongos? This song ends the album in a good way. Just like it started it ends leaving my baffled by the way they combined everything to make audible.

Listen and fly away

          Aghora certainly is a band which makes me wonder what kind of drugs they had to take to obtain such exotic and powerful combos of psychedelic music. I honestly didn’t listen to other album but it doesn’t mean I prefer only the first one. I hope their music is as great as it was on the debut long play. Even though their music is great, sometimes it tends to be repetitive, high-pitched vocals in particular songs seem not to be fitted. I hope their potential for making alternative music hasn’t vanished in the subsequent long play.

Final Score: 7/10