AGRICULTURE, “Living Is Easy” (The Flenser): 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 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. The title track has blinding riffs that lather with chaos, shrieks raining down, the pressure rampaging easily; “In The House of Angel Flesh” is fiery and destructive, incredible energy rippling through your body, the bass driving as the metallic stabs increase. “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. (May 3)

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/

BODY VOID/SUNROT, split (Riff Merchant): This split was released Nov. 20, Trans Day of Remembrance, in order to pay homage to those who have fallen for a cause that remains a fire starter to this day. The coming administration won’t make the cause for these people any easier, but they do have some solace knowing they have supporters from Sunrot and Body Void who are here to light the torches in their honor. “Still Burning” is the Sunrot opener and is a bath in pure noise, having it swim in the air around your head and into your senses, heading into “Shapeshifter” where an industrial poisoning greets you right away. Screams punish as the fuzzy doom batters your psyche, molten and sludgy madness forming a sort of black goo that bubbles toward you, spirited speed bursting from corners. Closer “Kill the Cop” is drenched in noise, a warped voice continuing to call the command that’s in the title. Body Void enters with “Assimilation System” that crumbles into a sound cloud, the playing pounding away, the shrieks scraping at the inside of your skull. “Crown of Fire” has energy vibes hovering and pulsating. The frozen gasp of cosmic isolation grips tight, the dark crunch spreading as all sound falls victim to a black hole. All digital proceeds benefit Black Trans Liberation. (Nov. 20)

For more on Sunrot, go here: https://www.facebook.com/sunrotmusic/

For more on Body Void, go here: https://www.facebook.com/bodyvoid/

To buy the album, go here: https://riffmerchant.bandcamp.com/album/sunrot-body-void-split

For more on the label, go here: https://riffmerchant.bandcamp.com/

FORLESEN/LOTUS THIEF, split (I, Voidhanger): We’ve written before about both Lotus Thief and Forlesen for their fuller works, but this split effort shows each beast has expanded musically and philosophically and still can leave your brain spinning in your skull over what you just heard. Lotus Thief’s track “In Perdition” is inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron that is a work of stories about people dealing with life during the Black Death. It starts off breezy for a track that centers on the goddamn plague, but here we are. Lush singing and immersive melodies combine before the first heavy blows land, and then the leads take off for the sky. Shrieks gut as steamy cleansing turns your emotions inside out, hurtling through dreamy terrain and then taking a hard turn into madness. Forlesen’s “Black Is the Color” is both a romantic and dark take on a traditional folk ballad that sounds perfectly reimagined in their hands. The track slinks into darkness and reverie, emotions picking up as the guitars catch fire. The soaring scorches as the drumming paces, the singing reaches out and grasps hearts, and the guitars envelop, sending blood through veins. A magnificent piece by two bands that share members. (Jan. 26)

For more on the Lotus Thief, go here: https://www.facebook.com/LotusThief

For more on Forlesen, go here: https://www.facebook.com/Forlesen

To buy the album (U.S.), go here: https://metalodyssey.8merch.us/

Or here (Europe): https://metalodyssey.8merch.com/

For more on the label, go here: https://www.facebook.com/i.voidhanger.records/

GUILTLESS, “Thorns” (Neurot): Guiltless is a new project that brings together members of bands such as A Storm of Light, Battle of Mice, Generation Vipers, and Intronaut, and their debut EP “Thorns” imagines a world that follows a society that follows a mass extinction event and what follows. Yeah, it’s bleak, and if you look at that list of other bands in which its members are involved, you have a good idea of what to expect here sonically. The playing immerses you in darkness and chaos, bringing along with them a doom-infested, post-metal assault that isn’t run of the mill and feels like a gathering of subgenre powers looking for new ways to expand this sound into a world on the brink of collapse. “Devour Collide” dawns amid thick fog and sludge, gruff howls turning into full-throated cries, the heaviness rumbling the Earth beneath you. “Dead-Eye” is punishing, slowly crushing with enormous gravity, a doomy cloud cover blanketing everything with darkness. Closer “In Radiant Glow” is immersed in noise buzz, moody playing stretching, growls dragging you over hot coals. Hoping for more from this band soon.  (Feb. 23)

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/guiltlessband

To buy the album, go here: https://neurotrecordings.merchtable.com/?

For more on the label, go here: https://www.neurotrecordings.com/

PELICAN, “Adrift / Tending the Embers” (self-released): “Adrift / Tending the Embers” is a two-track EP from the reunited Pelican that’s their first new music in five years. Yes, I know Pelican never went away, but it hasn’t operated under its original lineup since 2012, that being guitarists Trevor Shelley de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec (who has returned to the fold), bassist Bryan Herweg, and drummer Larry Herweg. Yet that configuration returns here, and they also have a full record in their future that also gives us reason to be excited. These two tracks from this session provide but a small sip, but it’s a flavorful, exciting one that feels like slipping back into a familiar place, excited to see these surroundings once again. “Adrift” starts with guitars slurring, the leads bathing in light as the bass begins to chug. Melodies glimmer as the playing goes from soaring to meatier, pummeling as the tempo sinks into your blood, settling in the atmosphere, basking in the clouds. “Tending the Embers” is the final track, trudging as the guitars slide, the playing tangling and then burning brightly. Guitars thicken as the melodies slink, the energy pulsating as the skies grow darker and more foreboding. Excited for what comes next! (March 1)

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/pelicansong

To buy the album, go here: https://pelican.bandcamp.com/album/adrift-tending-the-embers