Agriculture The Spiritual Sound

Critic's Take

The review highlights Bodhidharma, Flea and Hallelujah as standout moments, praising vivid riffs, spectacular solos and delicate balladry. Micah (5.15.am) and Serenity are noted for their high-speed hardcore energy, while Dan's Love Song and The Reply show textural breadth. The critic emphasizes Leah Levinson's vocal intensity and the band's dynamic shifts as core strengths, with hooks and riffs described as bright and original. Overall the praise centers on the variety of tones and the emotional power of specific tracks.

Key Points

• Bodhidharma is the best song for its commanding riff, dramatic middle eight and highlighted vocal performance.
• The album's core strengths are dynamic shifting, vivid riffs/solos and emotional vocal delivery across diverse textures.

Themes

Critic's Take

The review singles out the album’s second half—notably “Dan’s Love Song,” “Bodhidharma,” and “Hallelujah”—as emotionally vulnerable and profoundly evocative, contrasting the first half’s relentless heaviness exemplified by “My Garden,” “The Flea,” and “The Weight.” Praise centers on the band’s ability to pair seismic riffs and virtuoso solos with delicate, sung moments, producing blackgaze classics and ecstatic release. The reviewer highlights specific tracks for standout guitar work, evocative vocals, and structural ambition, presenting the record as both confrontational and consoling.

Key Points

• “Dan’s Love Song” is the best for its blackgaze classic status, unguarded lyrics, and Shields-like guitar wall.
• The album’s core strength is its duality—seismic heaviness balanced by delicate, emotionally vulnerable songwriting.

Themes

Critic's Take

Paste hails The Spiritual Sound as Agriculture’s finest, spotlighting melodic depth amid crushing noise. The review elevates "Dan's Love Song" and "My Garden" for their emotional resonance and textural breadth. "Flea," "The Weight," "Bodhidharma," "Hallelujah," "Serenity," and "The Reply" are praised for unpredictable dynamics and thematic engagement with Buddhist imagery. Overall the reviewer emphasizes the album’s capacity to fuse aggression with euphoria and affirmation.

Key Points

• "Dan's Love Song" is the emotional centerpiece because its melodic voicings and lyrics emerge beautifully beneath crushing noise.
• The album’s core strength is its textural versatility, fusing brutal intensity with moments of euphoria, stillness, and spiritual lyricism.

Themes

Critic's Take

The reviewer highlights several high points across the album, singling out the experimental surge on 'Micah (5:15am)', the crushing impact of 'The Weight', the monstrous horror of 'Bodhidharma', and the strong finish of 'The Reply'. 'Hallelujah' is called out as the sole misstep, described as boring and out of place. Overall the praise centers on heavy riffs, dense atmosphere, and bold genre-blending that elevate the best tracks above the album's messy cohesion.

Key Points

• Bodhidharma is the standout for its terrifying atmosphere, massive riffs, and ritual ambient elements.
• The album's core strengths are dense atmosphere, aggressive riffing, and adventurous genre-blending.

Themes

Critic's Take

The review highlights 'Dan's Love Song', 'Bodhidharma', and 'My Garden' as standouts for how they balance quiet, reflective passages with explosive black-metal bursts. The title track and 'Dan's Love Song' are noted for their beauty and closeness to the band's heart, while 'Bodhidharma' delivers the album's most metal riff and dramatic dynamics. 'My Garden' is praised for its instructive, dramatic opening that showcases the band's abrupt but natural shifts. The review frames these songs as exemplars of Agriculture's broadened, fluid approach to ecstatic black metal.

Key Points

• Dan's Love Song is the best for its dreamy, shoegazey warmth that feels central to the album.
• The album's strengths are its skilled loud-quiet dynamics and a blend of ecstatic black metal with shoegaze textures.

Themes

Critic's Take

Agriculture's second album, The Spiritual Sound, is presented here as a defiantly experimental masterpiece, its best songs unfolding through stark binaries rather than simple hooks. The review singles out opener My Garden and the frantic Micah (5. 15am) as exemplar tracks, where loud-versus-quiet and fast-versus-slow dynamics make them the best tracks on The Spiritual Sound. The writing praises the record's capacity to intrigue, excite and invigorate while noting a split between an explosive Side A and a slower-burning Side B that frames the album's strengths. The critic frames the album's top songs as vehicles for both emotional and political urgency, delivered with soul-rattling experimentality.

Key Points

• The best song is the opener My Garden because it crystallises the album's loud-quiet dynamics and is called "colossal" by the reviewer.
• The album's core strengths are its binary contrasts, soul-rattling experimentality and the emotional and political lyricism of its vocalists.

Themes

Critic's Take

In his measured, observant voice Raphael Helfand points out that Agriculture make The Spiritual Sound by leaning into both noise and tenderness; the best songs - notably My Garden and Bodhidharma - sit at that uneasy intersection. Helfand lingers over the record's ability to find release in anger while representing joy and love, praising opener My Garden for its tripartite shifts and Bodhidharma for its epic intro that subsides into quiet intimacy. He frames penultimate Hallelujah as a slow-burn melody that culminates in catharsis, and treats closer The Reply as a sober reminder that truth requires personal work. The result reads as an album whose best tracks are those that juxtapose chaos and hush with spiritual clarity.

Key Points

• The best song is My Garden for its dramatic, tripartite shifts that embody the album's chaos-and-tenderness conceit.
• The album's core strength is its sustained juxtaposition of high-octane noise and intimate quiet, framing spiritual themes through emotional extremes.

Themes