Agriculture have built a sky-scaling ladder into their form of black metal in that of being of the “ecstatic” nature with their 2022 EP, The Circle Chant, and last year’s breakthrough eponymous debut full-length. In this post-Deafheaven world, you can only hope that even a purist will know better than to wince at the notion of having to spark any conversations surrounding transcendentalism within the scene, but to anyone still skeptical of authenticity behind their art, the Los Angeles four-piece’s latest extended play, Living is Easy, is proof positive that Agriculture are not only creating it on their own terms, but consumed by it just as well.

The four-song listen — loosely based off four virtues from Buddha’s lives here on earth — unfolds in allegory on community and how the pursuit of it can elevate us into a higher plane of spiritual being as we do our best to survive the mortal coil. Two of those listens, its title track and opener alongside “In The House of Angel Flesh”, are more so familiar amalgamations of Agriculture merging blackgaze into a euphoric psyche, though both also hear their sound charging into displays of unapologetic wistfulness that channel fuzzed out ’90s indie rock. Celebration rock doesn’t even do that descriptor justice.

“Being Eaten by a Tiger”, a slowcore-indebted folk parable based on Buddha’s human sacrifice to a group of starving tiger cubs in the forest, is perhaps the EP’s most intriguing moment. Its sparse, almost-hymnal presentation is one that honors the light ruminating out from darkness akin to that of a Low song. Living is Easy then concludes with the understated, spoken word passage, “When You Were Born”. In that moment, it feels like Agriculture have lived many lives in just 16-minutes, but it’s more than plenty to nourish the inner self while also predicting a continued evolution in their creative form.

Highlights: “Living is Easy”, “Being Eaten by a Tiger”, “In The House of Angel Flesh”

Agriculture’s Living is Easy will be released May 3rd on The Flenser.

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