AGRICULTURE (us) & HEALING WOUND (uk)

In the organizer's words:

On their second album, Agriculture from Los Angeles take everything that was and is bad and shitty about black metal (torment, misogyny, provocation with fascist filth), cross it out - and celebrate what remains.

This is what we like to call post-black metal. The band speaks of "ecstatic black metal", and rightly so: blast beats, high-pitched screams and - unlike other bands in the genre - beautiful guitar melodies and pads that always bring tears of happiness to your eyes.

None of this is completely new: the high chopping frequency is familiar from Deafheaven, the euphoria from Liturgy, the insistence on the beauty of queerness. However, the consistency and playfulness with which black metal is freed from its toxic undercurrents and transformed into an ecstatic noise festival in repetitive, melodic noise rolls such as "My Garden", the punky "Micah (5.15am)" and the mid-tempo maelstrom "Bodhidharma" results in very unique, overflowing music.
(Benjamin Moldenhauer in Musikexpress 11/ 2025)