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When Agriculture first began breaking onto the scene a few years back, the black metal genre was stuck in a limbo state. Gone were the exciting days of the early 2010’s Renaissance. Liturgy with their freshly-coined transcendental black metal, Deafheaven with their revelatory blackgaze, Altar of Plagues with their successfully experimental black metal on an album like “Teethed Glory and Injury”. It was a good time to be a fan of this subgenre. In the subsequent years since, acts like these either branched too far away from the sound, or split up completely, or seemed to outgrow their initial buzz. Liturgy kept moving up, but one band can only do so much. It was time for a shake-up, and as you’ve probably guessed, that shake-up wouldn’t arrive for another several years yet.
2023’s self-titled Agriculture record was one that personally took me by surprise. It was equal-parts noisy blitz and measured reflection. While it featured many of the same elements of many a classic black metal record, it incorporated just as many idiosyncrasies to level the playing field. The intention was to overwhelm through incessant, high intensity playing that eventually became too monolithic to even look at. It’s where the ecstatic term originates. It was an ethos that Agriculture would go on to further develop on their 2024 EP “Living Is Easy”. It was at this point that expectations for me were through the roof. Agriculture were a band to watch, and now that the fullest picture is in front of us right now, I think I want it re-taken.
In trying to expand their ecstatic black metal sound, Agriculture forgo a key element of what made their music so euphoric in the first place. For one, their tendency towards acoustic balladry has never been a particularly strong suit, yet it consumes a bulk of this thing’s back half. Either that or we get fed aimless guitar feedback interludes that are more of a waste of time than something actually effective, like “Dan’s Love Song”. Or redundant ideas being strung out to six minutes, like on the lead single “Bodhidharma”. I feel less like I’m being enraptured by walls of strung-out mayhem, and more like I’m being endlessly blue-balled waiting for the next moment of ecstasy.
That’s not to discount this thing’s opening five track run though, which I believe is deserving of its own EP. It’s what I assumed the band would be aiming for, given its dubbing of this thing as “The Spiritual Sound”. Post-”Serenity” though, the record gets the wobbles. Too much ambition, not enough focus is what is ultimately kneecapping this thing. I can respect, in a vacuum, their willingness to experiment with different song-writing ideas. It doesn’t translate into a breakout release though. Not the one that a band of their obvious calibre deserves at least.
Dan Will Review 