AGHORA — Entheogenic Frequencies (review)

AGHORA — Entheogenic Frequencies album cover Album · 2019 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Entheogenic Frequencies" is the third full-length studio album by US progressive metal act Aghora. The album was independently released in December 2019. It´s the successor to "Formless" from 2006, so it´s been quite a few years since we´ve last heard from Aghora. Guitarist Santiago Dobles and bassist Alan Goldstein remain from the lineup who recorded the predecessor, while drummer Giann Rubio has been replaced by Matt Thompson (King Diamond, Imagika...etc.). Lead vocalist Diana Serra has left and has not been replaced, and as a result the music on "Entheogenic Frequencies" is fully instrumental.

Changing from an act featuring a vocalist to playing fully instrumental music would be a major change for most artists but Aghora already played a music style on their previous releases, which could well have worked without the vocals. In fact the vocals were often a distraction and felt like an afterthought on the preceding albums, so the lack of vocals on "Entheogenic Frequencies" is to my ears a bit of a blessing.

The jazz/fusion/world music influenced technical/progressive metal style of the preceding releases is continued in all other departments, and Aghora are still an incredibly well playing band. Thompson surprises me here, as I´m only familiar with his playing from the King Diamond albums he plays on and the King Diamond concerts I´ve attended through the years, and I´ve always felt that he had a stiff, unimaginative, and sligthly tedious playing style which held King Diamond´s music back, but his playing on "Entheogenic Frequencies" has given me another view on his abilities and the dynamics of King Diamond as a band (clearly Thomson just plays what he is told, and is not allowed much imput and creative playing), because this guy can play and there´s nothing wrong with the creativity and power of his playing. In fact the playing from all involved is amazing.

"Entheogenic Frequencies" features a detailed and well sounding production job too, so upon conclusion it´s a good quality release from Aghora and fans of artists like Cynic and the related Portal should find lots to appreciate here. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.
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