AGRIMONIA has been going on since 2005, having released two albums so far, their self-titled debut in 2008 and their second album, "Host of the Winged" in 2010, both of which, even though they were great albums, are nothing when you compare them to their Southern Lord debut, "Rites of Separation". For starters, they are a mixture of crust, sludge and Post Metal, featuring members from bands such as MARTYRDOD, MIASMAL, HOUSE OF USHER, SKITSYSTEM and fucking AT THE GATES. That probably got your attention, right?

So in "Rites of Separation" you will find five songs, four of which are longer than ten minutes that are a trip through Post Metal ambiences, helped with the use of effects and some acoustic passages (for instance seven minutes in "While Life Lies" and in the ending of "Awaiting") that help build an excellent and imposing ambiance upon the listener and Crust / Punk explosions, either with a Hardcore like groove like near the end of "Hunted" or a full on attack with blastbeats and everything that can be found in places in the opening song "Talion".

Of course that is not where AGRIMONIA stops, their album is filled with blackened doom and sludge riffs like in the beginning of "Hunted", a few Black Metal riffs in places like in the ending of "While Life Lies" and especially in "The Battle Fought". If that is not enough the album will also charm fans of more melodic music with a lot of the lead work in the guitars being influenced by the Swedish Death Metal scene of the early 90s that is quite obvious especially in the opening track "Talion".

To top all that with some rockier moments like in "While Life Lies", the excellent use of keyboards to give an extra lift to their tracks and Christina's great vocals and you got an album that manages to blend different influences, is atmospheric and aggressive at the same time and the most important part: it fucking remains interesting throughout, and when most of your songs are longer than ten minutes that is the biggest bet you have to win. An album you should not miss.