Los Angeles experimental metal band Agriculture’s new record, The Spiritual Sound, might not make sense to you at first listen. By the end of The Spiritual Sound, Agriculture have extended their tongue-in-cheek genre designation of “ecstatic black metal” into regions like powerviolence, noise, alternative, shoegaze, and sounds that touch on folk and traditional. (The band lists Metallica, Slipknot, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and Bob Dylan as primary influences on the new album.) The Spiritual Sound, Agriculture’s fourth release since forming in the pandemic, finds them once again exploring the extremes of musical sound—both heavy and gentle. The band’s writing process for The Spiritual Sound was “unusually collaborative,” says Meyer.