The Smashing Pumpkins : Aghori Mhori Mei

There was a time when The Smashing Pumpkins were a revered, loved, slightly misunderstood but ultimately great band. Gish, Siamese Dream, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness were all monumental albums. Gish was the psychedelic little brother to the giants Siamese and Mellon Collie. Siamese laid the groundwork for Big Muff guitar fuzz that would find its way into copycat records from bands like Silversun Pickups later on in the 90s and 2000s.

But what those secondhand SP bands lacked from the original Pumpkins flavor was songwriter/vocalist/guitarist Billy Corgan. Corgan started out as the sensitive leader with a penchant for crazy guitar histrionics(he grew up in the age of the guitar god, so that naturally followed him into his alt rock supremacy.) Besides walls of fuzzed guitar tones The Pumpkins wrote great songs.

But in the height of the 90s dominance drummer Jimmy Chamberlain was involved in the overdose death of touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin, which resulted in his firing and the electronic-heavy album Adore(bassist D’arcy Wretzky would follow in 1999.) From there on the Smashing Pumpkins were in and out of relevance and their future albums showed cracks in their alt-rock veneer.

The Smashing Pumpkins are back with the all-new Aghori Mhori Mei, with three of the four original members(Corgan, Iha, and Chamberlain.) Aghori Mhori Mei is a digestible 44 minutes and 10 songs of heavy-leaning prog-lite from the Pumpkins. Nearly 35 years from the band’s debut release, it seems Corgan can still pump out the riffage.

Billy Corgan has always dabbled in the heavy metal-adjacent rockers, as well as proggy tendencies(Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness had plenty of both.) The difference in 30 years is that then the Pumpkins knew how to balance the heavy and the balladry. For every “Bodies” there was a “1979” to even it out. Pumpkins 2024 seem to only want to bludgeon the eardrums throughout.

“Edin”, “Pentagrams”, and “Sighommi” keep a constant chugging with little change in dynamics. This has more in common with Corgan’s early 2000s project Zwan than classic Pumpkins. “War Dreams Of Itself” is a menacing rocker that’s part Muse and part Mastodon with little change in texture or color.

“Who Goes There” settles into a breezy vibe with subtle synth touches, while “Goeth The Fall” is a pleasant trip into poppier tones. But then we get hit with the 80s metal posturing of “Sicarus”. Closer “Murnau” floats on strings and mournful synth touches, going against the overall metal grain of this album.

Besides professional wrestling, conspiracy theories, and overall unwanted hot takes Billy Corgan is still pumping out music. Aghori Mhori Mei will tickle your metal fancy, but beyond that it feels a little strained and lacking in dynamics.