Oh wow, they are definitely must hear listening then. Their first album has both Seans as the rhythm section, and Gobel guests on a track. The guitarist/primary songwriter, Santiago Dobles, is kind of like Masvidal/Gobel on steroids. More technical, a heavier sound at times (almost Meshuggah-like on some tracks), similar jazz/fusion influences, but also a fair amount of inspiration from Indian classical music. Santiago toured for Cynic briefly at one point as well (as Gobel's stand-in, I believe).
Aghora was arguably my favorite band for chunks of the 00s, and still close to the top 10. The second album, Formless, doesn't have Malone (though Alan Goldstein is a more than capable successor), but it does have Reinert on half the tracks (and Giann Rubio on the other half is quite excellent). The third album, Entheogenic Frequencies, is quite good as well, but a bit odd. It was supposed to be a full band album as well (now with Matt Thompson on drums), but they've had issues retaining another vocalist, so they just released it instrumentally, with the possibility of adding vocals later on (which I worry may not happen given the 13 year delay on releasing it to begin with, Santiago has seemed to shift his focus to martial arts more than music at this point).
The comparison to Portal (besides likewise having Cynic members and lineage) is also due to having softer female vocals driving the first two albums. But in contrast to Portal, where they blend with the music, with Aghora it's more of a juxtaposition, since the music is often even more intense than Cynic, and beefier, with downtuned 7-strings. That dynamic of calm, sometimes ethereal vocals paired with instrumental insanity can be polarizing for some, but I find it quite intoxicating and unique.
Topic: What album are you listening to? v.7 (Read 188438 times)
