The Band Agriculture: The Spiritual Sound Review – Unabashedly Gorgeous Noise from Blissful Extreme Metal Band
Every bit of euphoria, transcendence, and intensity in heavy sonic art radiates with blinding energy from the second album by this self-described "blissful black metal" ensemble based in Los Angeles.
This new album combines crushing weight with creative intricacies. Lead single the song Bodhidharma rides a riff suited to a biker gang, before a burst of static and shrieking introduces a melancholic atmospheric rock bridge section. The maligned art of the widdly-woo solo is brilliantly revived by axeman Richard Chowenhill, whose soloing here and on standout Flea will have you floating in ecstasy – but then the calm ballad the track Hallelujah features descending guitar melodies played with youthful innocence.
Songs such as Micah (5.15.am) and the song Serenity are high-speed punk rock, while Dan’s Love Song is drum free and has slow-moving drone-metal distortion rumbling along underneath its dream-pop loveliness. Black metal melodies can often be absent or overly fussy, yet the band's guitar lines and choruses are bright and original, and closer the song The Reply even evokes a more intense Radiohead.
Fans of post-metallers similar artists will likely adore all this contrasting dynamics and unabashedly gorgeous noise, particularly since the group also have two distinct singing approaches, split here across two singers. Dan Meyer contributes sporadic melodic vocals, but the star is Leah Levinson, whose voice quivers on Bodhidharma but splenetically caterwauling elsewhere.
As is common in the genre, it’s hard to make out her lyrics, yet they are worth the effort: the stories she conveys about personal struggles and social injustice are heart-wrenching, as is her search for meaning in a world that relentlessly trends towards violence.
