Posts Tagged ‘Heavy’

Amnesiak – Arkfiend

Posted: 20 October 2025 in Albums, Reviews
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15th August 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

In recent years, the field of doom has expanded in terms of range, and has, at the same time, become rather more populous. One suspects in part that because these are pretty fucking dark times, increasingly, people are turning to dark music to articulate their own challenges, and to navigate the world around them. One welcome development is the number of female-fronted doom bands with vocalists who bring not only powerful voices, but a strong emotional force to the heft of the instrumentation.

Amnesiak pitch themselves as ‘Alternative Doom Rock’ – a subtle but necessary distinction from the proliferation of doom metal, which is something rendered clearly on this, their debut album. Containing just seven tracks, the longest of which is just under five minutes in duration, and with a couple that clock in at under three, it’s a concise document – and that’s welcome, because unlike so many other releases in the genre, which can at times be indulgent and err towards the overlong, and leaving you feeling drained, Arkfiend leaves you hankering for more.

The instrumental intro track, ‘Deamoniacus’ is something of a trope nowadays when it comes to heavy music – and screamy post-hardcore – but here it works differently, with samples reverberating in torturous extreme stereo, the sounding of the muttering clamour of a fractured internal dialogue which crowds the mind with discomfort, paving the way for the slow, majestic ethereal grandeur of ‘Archfiend’, which blends sepulchral doom with soaring vocals which float to the skies. ‘Flamed In Solitude’ plunges into darker territory, with dingy guitars squirming queasily over loping percussion. Layered vocal harmonies contrast with the thick guitars and booming bass, and those vocals sit between doom and folk, elevating the song to unexpected heights.

The dynamics of each song is something special, and the stylistic interplay sets them apart from their peers. ‘Pillory Of Victory’ is theatrical, gothic, dramatic in a theatrical sense, but also in an intense real and immediate sense – and at two and a half minutes there’s a moment where the riff skews and things take a sinewy turn for the more discordant, before the riff returns, hard and heavy. And yeas, I’m one of those people who obsessively pinpoints the moment when a song switches, when it moves from ‘yes!’ to ‘woah, fucking yes!’ – and it all comes down to a second or so. I’ve digressed, but so have Amnesiak, until they come around to the churning riffery of ‘Bootlicker’, which is truly monumental. Everything comes together here, and this is track of the album. For all its dirty guitar grind and dark lumbering riffery, it’s majestic, epic, a song that fills you up and lifts you up with its power. The final track, ‘The Last Rattle’ is a perfect balance of light and dark, weight and melody, reflective and sad and uplifting in equal measure. The quality of the songwriting, and the attention to detail on display here is quite something.

Arkfiend places Amnesiak comfortably alongside Cold in Berlin and Cwfen – and that’s a strong recommendation.

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SUNN O))) – Eternity’s Pillars b/w Raise the Chalice & Reverential

Posted: 16 October 2025 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
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Sub Pop – 14th October 2025

This one has seemingly come out of nowhere. And it’s on Sub Pop. And they’re calling it a Maxi 12”, as was the term for a 12” EP back in the 80s and 90s. And I suppose it does actually quality, given that the old-school Maxis tended to feature either two tracks per side, or an extended version of the single, plus B-sides, and that’s then case here. But with this being a sunn O))) release, the lead track is just shy of fourteen minutes in duration, and the tracks on the flip are eight and seven-and-a-half-minutes long respectively. Back then, a maxi would cost maybe £3.50, or £3.99 (I’m talking about the ‘90s: it was a couple of quid in the 80s… I can’t actually remember the price of an LP in the 80s, but have receipts sitting inside sleeves that verify that in 1994, a new LP on vinyl cost around £7 and a CD £11… so the fact that this ‘maxi’ is $25 tells you all you need to now about inflation and capitalism and how times have changed.

Anyway. The three tracks on this release, with a total running time of almost half an hour are notable as ‘first official sunn O))) studio recordings to feature only the original core duo on heavily saturated electric guitars and synthesis.’ It’s also introduced with a sense of elevation that’s typical sunn O))), when they inform us that ‘sunn O))) gave extreme focus and care to each step and aspect of the recording, each tone and level of saturation, each gain stage and speaker, each arrangement and harmonic. The Pacific Northwest forest is our guide.’

‘Eternity’s Pillars’ is a raging behemoth of feedback and sustain, every chord struck a billowing beast that punches through the endless drone, and while it is unquestionably classic sunn O))), it also brings together the defining elements of early Earth, in particular Earth 2, an album which effectively created the blueprint for the entirety of sunn O)))’s existence. Not a lot happens: that’s never the point. Downtuned guitars churn the bowels, scraping and snarling their way to monumental, megalithic sustain, though a continuous whine of feedback, each strike hanging in the air for what feels like an eternity. The pace is a crawl. Time stalls. It’s absolutely punishing. New shapes emerge, fleetingly, toward the end, notes rising like monuments from a cloud of smoke – by no means a melody, but it’s a progression, a change in mood.

‘Raise the Chalice’ is named ‘for a rallying cry often uttered by Northwest legend Ron Guardipee throughout the mid-1990’ – making it their second composition in his honour (the other being 2023’s ‘Ron G Warrior’, which was also released on Sub Pop), and opens with a full growl like a giant engine slowly revving , but instead of revving up, it gradually revs down into a slow-churning sonic abyss. It doesn’t sound, or feel much like a rallying cry. With the density of dark matter, the enormity of the sound engulfs the senses. By the arrival of ‘Reverential’, there’s a feeling of exhaustion, as if all the light and oxygen has been extracted, and yet still the sound continues to apply a crushing pressure.

While it’s difficult to really rank or compare sunn O))) releases as to what constitutes their ‘best’ or ‘heaviest’ work, this is certainly classic, quintessential sunn O))), and it’s very, very heavy indeed.

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Watch: ’The Stranger’ by Cold in Berlin

Posted: 13 October 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Wounds is Cold in Berlin’s long-awaited and recently announced fifth album – their first in six years. As heavy as it is haunting, the record masterfully blends doom, post-punk, and driving krautrock in a dynamic, hypnotic maelstrom – pushing London’s most exciting cult band into intoxicating new territory.

“Wounds is a series of songs about the different ways people live with and process ‘the wounds’ of their lives,” explains vocalist Maya. “A strange celebration of that formative pain we have all experienced in some way. The loss and joy of survival – the celebration of finding others like us, the gift of knowing life comes after fire.”

New single ‘The Stranger’ is a song that is meant to allow for multiple interpretations. Vocalist Maya adds:

“Perhaps it is a song about addiction- the wound that doesn’t heal. The way the focus of an addiction sings to you, searching you out, twisting and flowing through the body- whispering beneath the skin until you answer the call and find home once more.

Perhaps it is a song about finding your place in the world- groups of people watching and experiencing something meaningful together- a way to heal and close old wounds. How live music can stay with you even as you are separated from it. How finding the strange songs, sang in dark places can actually bring you home to yourself.

Or perhaps it is a song about that sharp kind of love at first sight that can overwhelm, offering freedom and constraint all at once. When you are drawn to that person that you know can destroy you, but you cease to matter because they are somehow instantly your home and only resting place.

‘The Stranger’ can be all these things- a healer, a cage, an addiction, but it is most definitely a call into the darkness, reaching out to the listener to join us in the howl of life, to wake up the bones and the skin. Be with us in the noise and know that whatever it is that led you to us, we are grateful you are home.”

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Nadja – cut

Posted: 11 October 2025 in Albums, Reviews
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Midira Records / Cruel Nature Records – 24th October 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

A new Nadja release is always cause for a pique of interest. Excitement doesn’t feel like quite the right term for an act who create such dense, dark, brooding soundscapes. Centred around the duo of Leah Buckareff and Aidan Baker, each release marks a shift thanks to the contribution of a range of guest performers, and cut is no exception – and this time, following the instrumental epic that was Labyrinthine (2022) – we have vocals, from not just Baker and Buckareff, but also Tristen Bakker, Oskar Bakker-Blair and Lane Shi Otayonii, among others. They certainly bring a lot of guests to a party which features just four tracks. But that is ’just’ four tracks which each occupy an entire side of vinyl on a double LP. As with Labyrinthine, these are compositions which span ten to sixteen minutes, and utilise that timeframe to maximum effect. They don’t hurry things, with slow, tapering drones interweaving, the emphasis on the atmosphere and the detail over the impact. And yet, despite this, or even perhaps because of this, the impact is strong, albeit in more subtle ways.

Their comments on the album are illuminating, explaining that ‘Thematically, cut explores trauma and physio-/psychological stress, as well as possible tools and means of overcoming these stressors, of which the music itself (sonic sublimation) might be one… Musically, while Nadja retains their signature wall-of-noise doomgaze sound, they also explore quieter, more introspective moments as well as new/different instrumentation, with harp, French horn, and saxophone featuring for the first time on one of the band’s recordings’.

‘It’s Cold When You Cut Me’ is stark, bleak, minimal. The air feels dead, it’s suffocating. The sparse percussion rattles along, but the drones are glacial. Five minutes in, rumbling bass and heavy beats roll in, and by the mid-point there are crushing waves of lugubrious noise worthy of Swans, but overlaid with trilling brass and woodwind, jazz in slow-mo, the honk of migrating birds and trilling abstraction.

But this is just a gentle introduction ahead of the thunderous grind of ‘Dark, No Knowledge’, which begins with atmospheric whirlings and even hints of Eastern esotericism, voices rising in the distance, atop wisps and rumbles, echoes and murmurings, before the dense, sludgy, post everything doom drone cascades in like a mudslide. It’s low and it’s slow, crawling like larva. buzzes and rumbles sustain for an eternity. You can actually feel your stomach drop in response to the bass frequencies.

The sound seems to get thicker and murkier as the album progresses, and if ‘She Ate His Dreams From the Inside & Spat Out The Frozen Fucking Bones’ isn’t nearly as abrasive as the title may suggest, its slow repetitious form is truly hypnotic as it trudges its way along.it possesses a rare density which matches its delicacy, and comparisons to latter-day Swans stand in terms of positioning the piece. There are thick, distorted tones grinding like earthworks through the airier overtones, and the contrast brings something magical and soothing. Then ‘Omenformation’ crashes in like a tsunami. The volume leaps, the density leaps, and you find yourself blown away by a sonic force strong enough to knock the air out of your lungs. The dingy, booming bass alone is enough to send you to the ground. The drums are immense. In fact, everything about this is almost inarticulable, as Nadja scale up the sound to beyond that of mere mortal beings. This is music with a physical force and a power beyond words, beyond contrivance. It’s archaic, occult, primal in its power. This is a track which treads through a series of movements, the last of which is crushing in its weight.

It’s true that cut possesses all of the sounds which are recognisable as being concomitant with Nadja’s distinctive dense, doomgaze stylings, and a lot of the vocals are as much additional layers rather than clearly enunciated words, and as such, add further depth – and a certain human aspect to the overall sound. The result is a work which speaks to that level of the psyche beyond words, which conveys trauma and physio-/psychological stress, and which offers a degree of relief through an experience which is wholly immersive and immensely powerful.

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Photo: Hugues de Castillo

Smote – Songs From The Free House

Posted: 6 October 2025 in Albums, Reviews
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Rocket Recordings – 17th October 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

The thing that particularly stands out in the bio for the latest Smote album is this: ‘Daniel Foggin has spent the majority of his adult life working as a landscape gardener, frequently pursuing his trade in conditions of either baking heat or freezing cold and, as he puts it “more often covered in mud than not”. Yet the primal, meditative aspects of this work, the act of communing with nature, its histories and its depths have fuelled his art on a profound level. As Daniel himself relates; “I think the music is a direct reflection of this feeling that I haven’t quite managed to define yet, it is dirty and hard but there is an overwhelming comfort to it.”’

It’s something artists rarely mention: they have day jobs. Perhaps there’s an element of shame in it for some. Maybe it detracts from the mystique. Or it could be that it’s considered a detraction from the pitching of the latest creation. But it’s a truth rarely spoken: most musicians, and artists in any medium, have day jobs and have to make time for their creative work. Tours have to be negotiated with work, taken out of annual leave, often juggled with family responsibilities. Sleevenotes by Joe Thompson of Hey Colossus and Henry Blacker is the most open narrative on the realities of this I’ve read to date, and at times the exhaustion crawls from the pages. As such, it’s refreshing that Foggin not only acknowledges his day job, but recognises it as a significant influence on his creative work. And why not? The most engaging art is drawn from life, after all. Much as it would be a more ideal situation that artists could make their living from art, at the same time, there is perhaps greater value in art created by those who live in ‘the real world’ rather than floating, detached, elevated above it in some kind of bubble.

The words ‘Free House’ make me automatically think of pubs, which perhaps says more about me than the artist, of whom we learn that ‘In the world of Smote, going further out means going inward. Less a metaphysical journey into inner space, more a physical journey into the ground itself, converging with its roots and vibrations. What’s more, a journey right to the heart of its principal architect’s daily experience’.

A cottar is a farmer, and with the album’s first piece, we’re plunged into a deep, surround-sound immersive dronescape, There are many layers to it: reverberating voice, trilling flute, sonorous synths, distant percussion… and it builds, and builds, growing into a hypnotic swell before finally breaking into a slow, weighty post-metal riff that twists and turns with spectacular force, hammering with the force of Pale Sketcher by the six minute mark. It has the weight of sodden earthworks, and conveys the hard exertion of ploughing and tilling, as it descends into a speaker-shredding wall of distortion.

‘The Linton Wyrm’ brings heavy Nordic connotations as it plods on, and on, over the course of a rousing nine and three quarter minutes. It’s not so far removed from the epic force of Sunn O))), but equally Wardruna, a band who evoke earthiness and the essence of pagan spiritualism – not about worshipping mythical gods, but celebrating a connection with nature on a level which is almost primal, and isn’t readily articulable through words: it’s something which transcends language.

Single cut ‘Snodgerss’, which clocks in at under four minutes is both representative of the album as a whole – and not. With its trilling flute and thunderous slow riffery, it incorporates some of the leading elements, but in a way which is considerably more accessible, not least of all with its folk leanings, and presents them in a condensed format. That said, it’s an intense piece, which offers no let-up.

The ten-and-a-half-minute ‘Chamber’ is slower, heavier, dronier, and encapsulates the true essence of the album as a whole, building on a low, resonant throb before the introduction of mournful woodwind. As graceful and soulful as it is, it connects with a primitivism which reaches to the core, a place beyond linguistic articulation. This is the sound of forests, of hills, of streams and moorlands.

The final track, ‘Wynne’ hammers the album home in a squalling blast of overloading guitar and powerful oration propelled by thunderous percussion. It’s mighty, and beyond, seven and a half minutes of blinding intensity which concludes an album that’s varied but unswerving in its density and force. You can truly feel the earth move.

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Listen: ‘050809’ by Spotlights

Posted: 2 October 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Spotlights, the beloved trio of Mario and Sarah Quintero with drummer Chris Enriquez, release Rarities, a remastered nine-song compilation of early and rare tracks spanning the band’s full discography on 21st November via Ipecac Recordings.

A preview arrives with ‘050809’, the first song the now married Mario and Sarah Quintero ever wrote together. “Sarah and I had been talking about making music together before we were even dating,” Mario shares. “05/08/09 is the day we became an item.”

Hear it here:

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Rarities traces the band’s evolution, from their debut single to standout tracks from their 2023 Séance EP. After relocating from San Diego to New York in 2013, the band released their first EP, Demonstrations, in 2015. That was followed by the Spiders EP and their full-length debut, Tidals, in 2016 – releases that drew attention from artists like Deftones, Shiner, If These Trees Could Talk, and ultimately led to their signing with Ipecac Recordings.

Now, after a decade of releases, the band is reflecting on these songs, all of which are appearing on vinyl for the first time. “It’s a really fun listen,” Mario adds. “You can hear and feel the development of the band over the years, not only musically but emotionally and production wise as well.”

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The band will be selling copies of the Rarities vinyl on tour, and via the Ipecac website. Tickets for the band’s shows supporting AA Williams are on sale now, via Ipecac.com/tours.

LIVE DATES IN SUPPORT OF AA WILLIAMS:

27/01 – UK Norwich, Arts Centre
28/01 – UK Milton Keynes, Craufurd Arms
29/01 – UK Nottingham, Bodega
30/01 – UK Manchester, Deaf Institute
31/01 – UK Glasgow, G2
01/02 – UK Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
03/02 – UK Birmingham, Hare & Hounds
04/02 – UK Bristol, Strange Brew
05/02 – UK London, Bush Hall
06/02 – UK Southampton, Papillon
07/02 – BE Diksmuide, 4AD
08/02 – FR Paris, Nouveau Casino
10/02 – FR Toulouse, Le Rex
11/02 – ES Barcelona, La Nau
12/02 – ES Madrid, Villanos
13/02 – PT Lisbon, Casa Capitão
14/02 – PT Porto, Mouco
15/02 – ES Donosti, Dabadaba
17/02 – FR Grenoble, l’Ampérage
18/02 – IT Milan, Legend Club
19/02 – CH Aarau, KiFF
20/02 – DE Munich, Live / Evil
21/02 – AT Vienna, Chelsea
22/02 – CZ Prague, SUBZERO
24/02 – PL Warsaw, VooDoo
25/02 – DE Berlin, Neue Zukunft
26/02 – DE Cologne, Gebäude 9
27/02 – NL Eindhoven, Effenaar
28/02 – NL Utrecht, Tivoli Cloud Nine

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Watch: ‘Deny Reality’ by Worst Ones

Posted: 30 September 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Philadelphia’s industrial sludge metallers WORST ONES is back with a new powerful single, entitled ‘Deny Reality’. The song channels the bleak pulse of Godflesh, the twisted hooks of Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson, and the sample-driven chaos of Skinny Puppy, creating something both claustrophobic and hypnotic.

‘Deny Reality’ is a mid-tempo industrial sludge anthem built on relentless electronic percussion and skittering hi-hats that slice through layers of noise loops. The guitars have been shredded, resampled, and reconstructed into something ripped and inhuman. A towering chorus cuts through the haze, while a crushing breakdown in the middle drags the listener deeper into heaviness.

Lyrically, ‘Deny Reality’ confronts the culture of wilful ignorance that has metastasized into complicity. Lines like “Cast out your empathy, behold your tragedy” and “My nightmares are dreams, you deny reality” attack the blindness that sustains power and allows violence to thrive. The song reflects a world where denial has become survival, even as that denial drives us toward collapse. In its imagery of poisoned breath, hollow faith, and the erasure of empathy, the track positions ignorance not as escape but as the very engine of destruction.

In addition to its digital release, Deny Reality will appear on Abolish ICE, a compilation CD of Philadelphia-area metal, hardcore, and punk bands. The CD features 16 artists, including Trunk, L.M.I., Sunrot, Boozewa, SOJI, Detox Meds, and Get Well. Copies are available from the bands in exchange for donations to Juntos, a community-led Latine immigrant rights organization based in Philadelphia. Through this release, WORST ONES aligns its music with direct action, using its sound as both protest and support for those most affected by systemic oppression. With Deny Reality, the band continues the mission of turning noise into resistance. The result is not just another sludge anthem, but a dirge for a society choking on its own denial and a demand to confront the truth, no matter how unbearable.

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Watch: ‘Thundertaker’ by Sky Valley Mistress

Posted: 30 September 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Sky Valley Mistress have initiated countdown to the release of their second album Luna Mausoleum, that is due to land on Friday 23rd January 2026 (New Heavy Sounds).

Intended to be the soundtrack of their Hearsecraft ride to the moon, Pilot Kayley “Hell Kitten” Davies and Commander Max “Leather Messiah” Newsome launch you into the Sonic Stratosphere with an audio journey fuelled by 70’s hard rock, driven off the road to a fresh new destination.

Taking you through desert rock grooves and mountainous riffs, you are guided by Kayley’s soulfully smoked voice and her range of soaring, delicate, yearning and understated melodies as the band ride peaks and valleys of dynamics and pace with an eclectic selection of instrumentation of fuzz guitars, organs, real orchestras and a children’s choir.

Twisting influences of Queens of the Stone Age with Portishead and turning from Spiritualised-sized gospel choruses to the gallow heavy swing of Black Sabbath, with sound as fast as light they move between their influential orbit to create a modern classic that is entirely their own. There isn’t space in this genre the band haven’t explored. This is a demonstration of their refusal to wait for permission to create a record that stands in scale with some of the most monumental albums in rock.

The band’s statement on their intent behind creating Luna Mausoleum was that it should be “greater and beyond all reason”.

They’ve also released first single ‘Thundertaker’ named after the hearse they drive on tour. Opening with the apocalyptic power of early Black Sabbath before taking you on a joy ride fuelled by some Motörhead grade speed, THUNDERTAKER is a riff rippin’ rocket jam kicked out from the Sonic Strato- sphere for the world to hear.

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The band who has one member play every instrument so that they sound like a four piece in the studio, defy logic with aspiration with their iconic live show as a Duel-Drumming Duo. Vocalist Kayley “Hell Kitten” Davies takes the sticks and one half of a drum kit whilst original drummer Max “Leather Messiah” Newsome battles the electric guitar with the kick drum under his foot. No samples. No backing tracks. No click tracks. No one is playing rock and roll the ways these two do.

Live October 2025:

02  – LONDON THE BLACK HEART

03 – SHEFFIELD NETWORK

04 – DARWEN SUNBIRD

17 – HULL DIVEHU5

18 – PRESTON THE CONTINENTAL

23 – THE PURPLE TURTLE READING

24 – FORUM BASEMENT TUNBRIDGE WELLS

25 – THE LIGHTHOUSE KENT

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Watch: ‘No Pictures Please’ by Eville

Posted: 12 September 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Eville have come to be regulars here at Aural Aggravation. We rate them highly, and we rate their latest single, ‘No Pictures Please’, from their forthcoming debut EP Brat Metal, out next month. Check it here:

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Agriculture – The Spiritual Sound

Posted: 6 September 2025 in Albums, Reviews
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The Flenser – 3rd October 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

Agriculture – the name brings connotations of the slow, the sedate, a simple and calm life, of rolling fields, tractors, luscious foliage, abundant harvests. One may picture hedgerows, and hear birdsong, the lowing of cattle in the mind’s ear. But LA quartet Agriculture describe themselves as ‘ecstatic black metal’, which on paper sounds like an oxymoron, but on hearing them, it makes sense, although it’s hard to really unpack precisely why this is so. I mean, it’s black metal and its raging and ferocious, tempestuous, and tumultuous, with relentless double-pedal drumming and frenzied fretwork. And yet… and yet from the abyss emerges a strange sense of euphoria. Uplifting is not quite the word… but the release, the spirituality of pure catharsis – this, this is where we find ourselves. And in this sense, the album’s title is apposite. This is the sound of rapturous liberation from the grounded state, and an album that goes far, far beyond the confines of black metal as we know it.

As they explain ‘Agriculture doesn’t offer salvation. The Spiritual Sound isn’t a map out of the fire. What it offers instead is presence: a confrontation with the moment, however unbearable, however divine. It insists that meaning is still possible, even in a world hell-bent on reducing everything to content, and where suffering itself can be conducive to recovery. As the Buddhist saying goes “the only way out is in.”’

The brutal lead single, ‘The Weight’, set the expectations high for this second full-length release. And if it set a precedent in terms of anticipation for high octane, high-intensity, full-blooded metal intensity, then it still cannot really prepare you for the full force of this album – or its range, as the band push in myriad directions, at times making music of soft, aching beauty which hits just as hard as the all-out blunt force that dominates.

A minute into ‘My Garden’, I’m ready to take some time out to lie down. The sonic density hits like a hurricane, the thick, distorted bass grinding hard into the solar plexus, the guitars as gnarly and dirty and fuck, the vocals dragged screaming from the very pits of hell come together and hit hard. It makes for five gut-wrenching minutes, jarring, jolting, squalling hard through angular discord that burns like a wildfire. But, towards there end, there is an unexpected bridge, which is nothing short of angelic, arriving like a mirage rising through a heat haze in the desert, which swiftly disappear in a welter of warping noise.

‘Flea’ sounds more like 90s grunge, before a blanket of fretwork crashes in. The grungy track caries on, though, and the result being some kind of sonic palimpsest. Elsewhere, ‘Dan’s Love Song’ takes the form of a slow-tapering shoegazey drone work, which is delicate and graceful despite the underlying density of the soaring, vaporous guitar, while ‘Bodhidharma’ starts out sparse and delicate before lurching into a bruising grunge riff.

There’s no question that ‘The Weight’ is a clear standout, for its sheer relentless force alone. The narrative of the lyric is as heavy as the sludgy guitar and grinding bass, and the rabid vocals top it all perfectly, inflicting maximum anguish. It’s not overtly uplifting by any stretch – in fact, it’s outright harrowing – but it’s the sound of vital emotional release.

Indeed, this is the trajectory of songs like ‘Serenity’, which is similarly fast and frenzied, and it does offer a strange sort of serenity – but when the notes are played so fast they blur and melt together, there comes a point where things smooth out and everything simply washes over you. I have a sense that it’s the kind of calmness and serenity which comes to those who are drowning just before they lose consciousness.

The title track, as it happens, is but a twenty-nine second interlude, a slow, low, rumbling drone, and the soft balladry of the almost folky ‘Hallelujah’ is simply breathtaking in its simplicity and the beautiful nature of its execution.

The final track, ‘The Reply’ is six and a half minutes of blistering blackened post rock / post metal, which in places evokes the searching emotional introspection of Her Name is Calla, while in others simply pounds and soars, simultaneously.

The balance of crushing weight and aching reflection is hard to reconcile at first, as the juxtapositions are extreme, but given time to digest and process, it proves to be perfect. The gentler moments pull it back from the brink of excess, and – strange to say – from being too much. Where Agriculture really strike gold is in their ability to sustain the emotional intensity through the gentler moments, meaning that while you’re recovering your breath, they continue to prod at those mental pressure points. The result is at times bewildering, overwhelming, even devastating. With The Spiritual Sound, Agriculture don’t only transcend black metal, but genre entirely, and the experience is dizzying, a visionary creative peak which is truly peerless.

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Photo credit: Olivia Crumm

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