Noise Complaint

This column is a reprint from Unwinnable Monthly #194*. If you like what you see, grab the magazine for less than ten dollars, or subscribe and get all future magazines for half price.*

———

Ruminations on the power of the riff.

———

There are a lot of words I’d use to describe black metal, but “ecstatic” is rarely one of them. This is dark and nihilistic music that’s more likely to condemn the human condition than celebrate it. So, when I saw that Agriculture call themselves “ecstatic black metal,” I had some questions. The band’s logo uses a legible font and no one in their press photo was wearing black. Hell, at least one member was actually smiling. Based on limited information, I assumed they might be yet another band borrowing elements of black metal – blastbeats, lo-fi guitars, naive contempt for all mankind – but making it all more accessible. Trend chasing, to put it less charitably.

I wouldn’t necessarily have a problem with that; I’m the furthest thing from a black metal purist. However, I am generally of the opinion that if you’re going to be a heavy band, it’s best just to be a heavy band. I also believe that words have meaning, and if you’re not a black metal band, then just don’t call yourself a black metal band. Had my initial judgments about Agriculture been accurate, that much would have saved me the time and energy of wondering whether I have finally gotten so old that the very definition of the term “black metal” had fully inverted itself.

Fortunately, my assumptions about Agriculture were proven inaccurate moments into The Spiritual Sound. There’s nothing accessible about album opener “My Garden,” a track that pummels and wails its way through 5:12 worth of unpredictable twists and turns, with beatdown hardcore riffs and ripping guitar solos that tear through unusual scales with ease. Suspicions about whether or not I am, in fact, actually an asshole for having less than favorable suspicions about the band’s integrity were swiftly confirmed, and I felt like I learned a lesson about starting to form opinions about a record before pressing play.

It turns out the self-applied label “ecstatic black metal” is a joke; in an interview with Stereogum, vocalist and guitarist Dan Meyer recently said, “… what we’re laughing at is that you can play with genre in metal in a way that you can’t in other fields. It feels a little more expected and infinite to play around from this large pool of influences.” If there’s anything that isn’t black metal about Agriculture, it might be having a sense of humor (and a sense of self-awareness might be frowned upon too).

With that said, it’s clear the members of Agriculture have studied black metal and understand how it should be constructed at the molecular level. The classic genre hallmarks of whirring guitars, pummeling blastbeats, and shrieking vocals are all here. Yet so are inflections of industrial noise, folk and dreampop, all more or less fused together within unpredictable song structures that follow their own internal logic. These disparate influences aren’t always cleanly blended, and there are moments where the seams between their influences are noticeable. At the same time, they aren’t cynically mashing together different sounds without intent. It works more often than it doesn’t, and the band conveys confidence in what they are trying to achieve.

Crucially, when Agriculture steps outside black metal conventions on The Spiritual Sound, it isn’t in order to make fundamentally brutal music more marketable. The dreampop-inspired vocals that come in midway through the harrowing “Flea” and throughout “Dan’s Love Song” are more what you’d call beautiful rather than pretty. “Hallelujah,” the record’s least overtly metal track, adds static and fuzz to folk-inflected guitars, while album closer “The Reply” winds its way through to a triumphant finish. These breaks from breathtaking heaviness add variance but aren’t exactly radio-friendly; they merely offer moments to catch your breath before getting gut punched again.

Agriculture’s rapid pivots demand attention, forcing an uncomfortable mindfulness from the listener. Zen Buddhism is a central thematic influence on The Spiritual Sound, manifesting itself in the lyrics of tracks like “Bodhidharma” and in the way it refuses to be a passive listening experience. It wants you to be aware of what you’re consuming, making the act of listening your primary focus, and it rarely stays in one place long enough to fade into the background.

Dictionary.com defines “ecstatic” as meaning, “of, relating to, or characterized by ecstasy or a state of sudden, intense, overpowering emotion.” While it may be a tongue-in-cheek label, the term “ecstatic black metal” feels genuinely fitting here after all. On The Spiritual Sound, Agriculture have challenged not only my understanding of what black metal can sound like, but what themes it can explore, and what feelings it can invoke. It is the opposite of nihilistic, but it doesn’t sell out the spirit of black metal, instead feeling life-affirming in the way it confronts darkness. Rarely have I been this (wait for it) ecstatic to have my assumptions proven wrong.

———

Ben Sailer is a writer based out of Fargo, ND, where he survives the cold with his wife and dog. His writing also regularly appears in New Noise Magazine.