Agriculture: The Spiritual Sound Album Analysis – Unabashedly Gorgeous Noise from Blissful Extreme Metal Group

All the euphoria, spiritual ascent, and power of heavy music bursts forth with blinding force from the second album by this self-described "blissful black metal" collective based in Los Angeles.

The Spiritual Sound pairs crushing weight with imaginative detailing. Lead single Bodhidharma rides a riff fit for a biker gang, before a blast of noise and shrieking introduces a melancholic post-rock bridge section. The maligned art of the widdly-woo solo is brilliantly revived by axeman Richard Chowenhill, whose lead work here and on highlight the song Flea will have you floating in ecstasy – but then the calm ballad the track Hallelujah features falling guitar notes played with childlike simplicity.

Tracks like Micah and Serenity are high-speed hardcore punk, but the piece Dan’s Love Song is drum free and has slow-moving drone-metal distortion rumbling along underneath its dream-pop loveliness. Melodies in black metal can often be absent or too complex, but the band's guitar lines and choruses are vibrant and innovative, and final track the song The Reply even evokes a much heavier Radiohead.

Fans of post-metallers Deafheaven will probably love all this dynamic shifting and fearlessly beautiful sound, particularly since Agriculture also have two divergent singing approaches, divided here across two singers. Dan Meyer adds sporadic melodic vocals, but the star is Leah Levinson, her voice trembling on one track but fiercely howling elsewhere.

As is common in the genre, it's difficult to make out her lyrics, yet they are worth the effort: the stories she conveys about suicidal friends and social injustice are devastating, just like her search for purpose in a world that inexorably bends towards violence.