Agriculture: The Spiritual Sound Album Analysis – Boldly Beautiful Noise from Ecstatic Black Metal Group
All the euphoria, spiritual ascent, and power of heavy music radiates with blinding force from the second album by this self-proclaimed "blissful black metal" collective based in Los Angeles.
The Spiritual Sound combines crushing weight with imaginative detailing. Key track the song Bodhidharma rides a riff suited to a biker gang, then a blast of noise and screaming heralds a sad atmospheric rock middle eight. The maligned art of the widdly-woo solo is spectacularly resurrected by axeman Richard Chowenhill, whose lead work here and on standout Flea will have you levitating with joy – but then the calm ballad Hallelujah showcases falling guitar notes played with childlike simplicity.
Songs such as Micah and the song Serenity are fast-paced hardcore punk, while Dan’s Love Song is drum free and has glacial drone-metal distortion rumbling underneath its dream-pop loveliness. Black metal melodies can often be absent or too complex, yet the band's riffs and hooks are bright and original, and final track the song The Reply even recalls a more intense Radiohead.
Listeners who enjoy post-metallers similar artists will likely adore all this contrasting dynamics and unabashedly gorgeous noise, especially because the group also have two distinct singing approaches, divided here across two singers. Dan Meyer adds occasional soulful, clean singing, yet the standout is the other vocalist, whose voice quivers on one track but fiercely howling on other songs.
In typical black metal fashion, it's difficult to make out the words she sings, yet they are worth seeking out: the narratives she sings about personal struggles and anti-LGBTQ bigotry are devastating, as is her search for meaning in a reality that relentlessly trends towards violence.
