Agrimonia’s newest album Rites Of Separation is somewhat of a blunder to me. I, out of ignorance or never being at the right place at the right time, had never even hard of the band until I read the press release and decided to give it a whirl. Glad I did, though.
With five songs clocking in at right around an hour (and only one of the five being under 10 minutes) you would expect an album mixed of Swedish death metal, black metal and moderate atmospherics to be a chore to listen to. On paper, 10 minute opener ‘Talion’ shouldn't bend and curve through peaks like it does, on paper at least. Thankfully the song moves at many different paces, yet always sounds like it is moving forward. Never does the band become over-indulgent, or meander for too long. And even the tempo shifts, they never sound too abrupt or forced. The same goes through the rest of the album, whether it be the ringing piano at the beginning of ‘Hunted’ or the spacey parts of ‘Awaiting’. There isn't any fat that needs to be trimmed throughout, something I don’t think I've ever said about an hour long death metal album. But, even just calling this a “death metal” album even seems wrong at times. This album is just epic piece after piece, in a way that never comes off as pretentious or cheesy. That’s something many bands cannot say in these times.
All song explanations aside, their choice of guitar tones, bass being mixed with everything else (a major plus in my book), drums played flawlessly but without any modern tricks and a great vocalist whose roar never breaks and fits right in; it all sounds perfect. In an age of genre crossing and music mashing in an order to come up with something new and original, Agrimonia leap ahead with their take on how metal should sound. And for once it’s something more than rehashed ideas put in a blender.
Rites Of Separation will be available on April 29th on CD and on 2xLP in May, both through Southern Lord Records. Don’t miss out on this one, you’ll be sorry if you do.
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HAIL!!!!
