It can be so hard to succinctly pin down what goes into the “ecstatic black metal” of Los Angeles band Agriculture that sometimes that self-proclaimed label feels incomplete. At the very least, the band itself feels that way about their most recent work. “This record is not really a black metal record,” vocalist and guitarist Dan Meyer offers as a disclaimer about The Spiritual Sound, the group’s sophomore album. Sure, there are blast beats and thundering drop-tuned riffs aplenty, but there are just as many passages where the clouds suddenly part and the entire light of a song will shift. Touchpoints that call to mind black metal or thrash or doom take up just as much real estate as the stretches that feel right in line with shoegaze or post-rock. If The Spiritual Sound can be considered “a black metal record,” it plays pretty damn loose with what a black metal record can sound like.
