The Smashing Pumpkins – Aghori Mhori Mei – Album Review
by Killian Laher

The Smashing Pumpkins c/o Billy Corgan are back with album number 13, and the band elected not to release any singles from it before releasing the whole thing.  After last year’s overblown opus Atum, Corgan has billed this as back to basics, and that’s how it sounds.  It opens with the very satisfying rocker Edin, with seriously heavy guitars pushed up front.  The guitars are practically metal, and it does go a little over the top but in the main, it works.  Pentagrams and Sighommi follow on in a similar vein, again the guitars are recorded incredibly well.  War Dreams Of Itself and 999 have slamming, heavy guitars, raging as hard as Metallica or any other metal band worth its salt.

What lets the album down a little are Corgan’s vocals, which just sound a little… odd.  The production pushes them to the front and they might be better off lower in the mix.  The band don’t completely ignore their pop side, with the relaxed-sounding Who Goes There providing something of an entry point for the not fully convinced.  Later, Goethe The Fall is a great big pop song in the vein of (dare I say it) 1979.  The album finishes up with the string-laden Murnau.

After some albums which have, to be honest, tried the patience of even their most committed fans, Smashing Pumpkins’ new album sounds like a breath of fresh air.  If you’ve been inclined to dismiss 21st-century Smashing Pumpkins it might be time to reconsider.

Edin