SHADES OF SECRETS

If there was ever a perfect example of an album that can be called "good but non-essential" it could be this release by Dutch Agharta. I own this disk for almost two decades now and always enjoy playing it but it never gets me really excited.

The music is all instrumental prog metal sounding like a blend of Marco Sfogli and Joe Satriani with also hints to Yngwie Malmsteen. And here we also have the reason why it was a tough task for our metal team to decide whether Agharta should be included. Because Sfogli is absolutely prog (metal) and in my believe both Satriani and Malmsteen are not. And so the music on this only album by the Dutch is right in between and therefore a real dubious case.

In the end I feel the inclusion is justified due to pretty complex compositions that go beyond the highly accessible stuff that Malmsteen and Satriani produce. On the other hand the complexity doesn't go to the very limit and the tunes are pretty easy to grasp for prog standard. Nevertheless I feel this could be a welcome addition to prog metal collections that is if you like your prog metal highly melodic with borderline progressive content. Like I said, good but non- essential.