I’m going to pick a few key words or phrases from the press notes about Agriculture which may both inform and baffle you. Here we go: “ecstatic black metal”, “emerging from LA’s noise scene”, “fuses Zen Buddhist thought with queer history” and “radiant extremity”. Now, I’ve read a lot of press packs in my time (though maybe fewer than I should), but rarely have I been as intrigued as I was by this collection of disparate and occasionally incongruous words. I assumed there would be some Deafheaven-isms included and I was right, to a degree, but there are aspects of this band’s sound that I don’t think I was aware I needed in my life. A few short days later, the fact that I do is beyond question.

To build on the Deafheaven comparison (just because it’s one that most people can use as a starting point), there are more post-hardcore inflections here, I would say. To the point that the record occasionally strays into indie rock territory. Of the more avant-garde style, to be clear, but the “metal” that exists in this record is more often more to do with extremity of structure and pace than it is of guitar tone, for example. And yes, there are black metal vocals and tremolo guitars used liberally across the record, but because the production is a lot more lush than one would typically expect from a black metal record, it never feels as icy or bleak as it might otherwise. The guitars, despite being played frequently at the higher end of the neck have a strangely mellifluous tone to them that feel more like a million encouraging hands reaching out to you than a million icy shards. That doesn’t mean the band can’t deal in emotional weight and bleak soundscapes though. They do that to a definitive degree in the opening passage of the aptly-titled ‘The Weight’, for example. But even in that song, the composition develops and turns into something far more nuanced and ambiguous. The strained and ascending chords of the middle passages deliver a sense of dread, but also something akin to optimism at the same time. And then when the song enters its last 2 minutes? Wow. It’s ecstasy, it’s agony, it’s catharsis, it’s rage, it’s wild, yet considered; and all sorts in between. I’m reminded of the solo/break in “Paranoid Android” by Radiohead, and yes I’m aware of how lofty a comparison that is.

Oddly, the title track is a sub-30 second interlude of subtly grinding ambient noise that precedes “Dan’s Love Song”, the first minute of which is largely the same soundscape as the Interlude. But when the song emerges in earnest, you know you’re in a different place. There are no drums, the soundscape in the background remains; hypnotic, yet slowly developing, and a clean, relatively nondescript male vocal (no offence) coasts above it. It feels like the aural equivalent of daring you to look away, but it’s monumentally difficult to do so. By the end, you feel as if you’ve been enveloped in the song’s slow and reassuring transitions. Structurally, and from a sequencing perspective, it’s a really neat trick. Not least of all because it then ushers in “Bodidharma”. I won’t bang on, but it’s my track of the year without question. It’s Emma Ruth Rundle, it’s Lingua Ignota, it’s Primitive Man…and yet is also the vehicle for one of the most triumphant solos I’ve heard in recent times. The song that follows, “Hallelujah” is not a cover you maybe be unsurprised to hear, but does come with its own surprises which I shan’t uncover for you. This then leads to album closer “The Reply”. Needless to say, another voyage of exhilarating discovery.

I don’t know if there is a whole scene of this stuff that has just remained obscured to me up until now, but I need to do some more digging either way. Because although there will be detractors who make even less elegant Deafheaven comparison points than I did in the early part of this review, and crucially, many will stick ardently to that comparison, however I think this is something quite different. Maybe that’s what excites me, or maybe it’s just the authenticity and innate quality of the songwriting and execution of it. The instrumentation and sequencing, the fury and fragility. Whatever magical combination has coalesced to create this record, I’m all in. I can’t get enough of it. I’ve got a new band occupying that space in my mind where I know they can create special music and that makes me immensely happy.