REVIEW: Agriculture - The Spiritual Sound

Black metal outfit AGRICULTURE have combined the speed and thrash of 90's Nordic metal with the varied styles of alt rock and the transcendent technical melodies of post metal on their third full length project The Spiritual Sound. The chaos in its soundscape feels intentional and cultivates an active listening experience, whilst the themes are grounded in real life and real emotions that are based on their experiences as queer Buddhists.

The record opens with My Garden, in which can be found angular, abrasive guitars intertwined with goblin screams, layered well over the clean vocals before devolving into shredded guitar solos that close out an explosive opening track. The clean vocals themselves are gorgeous overall, with tracks such as Dan’s Love Song being a great example of this. More normatively black metal and a straight-laced love song, it is a tonal change throughout an album focused on the issues of the day and features a synthiness in its soundscape that was both an example of its genre and an exploration of the boundaries within it.

While the combination of both vocal styles across the album is usually well executed, there were periods where the execution did not pay off, such as in Flea. The spoken word at the beginning was welcome, but the layering of the spoken word with both clean and screamed vocals came over as jarring, lacking the arrangement of the chaos in the instrumentals. That said, the halfway-point guitar solo was beautiful with a focus on the technical melodies over speedy shredding, and the end of Flea launched into the ethereal in its second half with pensive screams. 

As for the instrumentals, RICHARD CHOWENHILL’s guitar work was exemplary. Where tracks such as My Garden leaned into razor-sharp shreds and crafted traditional metal soundscapes, tracks including Bodhidharma would strip back into more intentional and technical melodies. Mixing these methods of melody-making highlights RICHARD’s abilities, while offering variation of mood and style that compliments the flow of AGRICULTURE overall; the initial chaos in the shredding complimenting the screams in the album's first half, while the melodies compliment the intentional tracks of its second. On this note, KERN HAUG’s drumming was a masterclass in the simple-yet-difficult styles of drumlines. From the razor sharp speed in the single bass/snare line kept up for the whole duration of Flea, to the closing sections of Bodhidharma where the heavy-handed classic rock drumming spins out over each tom to create a breakneck-speed solo over its final chorus, the percussion masterclass never ceases.

AGRICULTURE also does their production in house, with RICHARD taking the credit for this. This has produced an attention to detail that can be heard throughout The Spiritual Sound, notably on Flea with a touch of the volume in the mix going down during the last chorus to supplement that transcendent feel. This has also aided experimentation throughout the project, for example The Weight played with a stopping and starting high pitched distortion which was technically interesting - though personally grating. The overarching sounds of The Spiritual Sound are grounded in the black metal genre, with some nods to alternative rock especially as it cools in its second half. This can be heard in the riffs of Bodhidharma with its itch-scratching riffs in its first half, then again in album closer The Reply as its last third riffs in a way that feels akin to DEFTONES with its minor key alto pitching.    

All in all, the themes of presence and confrontation of the moment are clear and explored well throughout The Spiritual Sound, with the chaos and harder moments creating this confrontation while its quieter moments still cultivate active listening to create presence of thought throughout the album. Each instrument was brilliant in its technicality, and while not every production choice paid off, experimentation only makes sound better over time.  

Score: 9/10

The Spiritual Sound will be released on October 3rd 2025 via The Flenser.

Words: Julia Brunton

Photos: Agriculture