Metal, and especially black metal, tends to revel in the negativity, the dark spaces that grow thicker with each record, a way to release that negativity productively. That’s if you’re in a good headspace. There’s not a lot out there that lifts you up, gives you something that sparks joy, lets you get away from the monotony of pain and suffering for a while.
Bay Area black metal band Agriculture describe their music as ecstatic, and it’s impossible to hear their work and not feel something different and meaningful brewing inside of you. The band—guitarist/vocalist Daniel Meyer-O’Keeffe, bassist/vocalist Leah B. Levinson, guitarist Richard Chowenhill, drummer/percussionist Kern Haug—follows up their debut self-titled full-length with a new EP “Living Is Easy,” a title that is not dripping with sarcasm like you might expect from metal. This four-track burst hits you hard and delves into subjects including community, sacrifice, and finding the positive and good aspects of life, a heavy turn that makes this band stand apart from everyone else. This is packaged with their first EP “The Circle Chant,” which we covered in November 2022 and is now getting its first vinyl pressing.
“Living Is Easy” opens with blinding riffs that lather with chaos, shrieks raining down, the pressure rampaging easily. Melodies rush as vile howls bruise flesh, and a small dose of calm is misleading as a manic gust attacks, piling on with blistering madness, flooding with infectious madness. “Being Eaten By a Tiger” turns to quiet, folkish playing, the band recounting a tale of a young Buddha encountering a family of starving tigers and sacrificing his body to nourish them. It’s a tender, emotional track, the act of selflessness weaving into your heart. “In The House of Angel Flesh” recounts The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions, a 1977 book by Larry Mitchell about communal relations built in a time of chaos and struggle. The playing is fiery and destructive, incredible energy rippling through your body, the bass driving as the metallic stabs increase. The track swims through fire on its way to building strength and familiar support, crushing to a delirious finish. “When You Were Born” is a short closer that’s a poem about finding people along your life journey who help redefine what makes up your support system.
Agriculture’s power is something you might not fully understand until their music is within your grasp and you absorb their work, and “Living Is Easy” is a quick dose of what they do best. It’s an infectious, immersive 16 minutes, and it’s so different from one song to the next, and in each moment as it develops, that you’ll need repeat visits just to digest it all. That’s a good thing, and to find black metal that makes you feel alive inside and gives you hope for your own journey is irreplaceable.
For more on the band, go here: https://agriculturemusic.bandcamp.com/
To buy the album, go here: https://nowflensing.com/collections/flenser-releases
For more on the label, go here: https://nowflensing.com/
Meat Mead Metal 