Agridustrial is authentic mechanical rockabilly grit. The Shakers recorded and interlaced anvils, hammers and other soul-crushing apparatuses with newly-added Jesus Lizard guitarist Duane Denison’s black-hearted ax-lines. Vocalist J.D. Wilkes screeches of souls starving, barns blazing and leaders reigning over their lemmings with a “Dixie-Iron Fist.”
“Melungeon Melody” is all factory spit and springs. “Sin Eater” uses a roller-coaster harmonica riff to praise the Lord while “Nightride” sees mankind withering before its own jaded eyes. “Laws like sausage/Both are grade/Nobody wants to see how either get made,” Wilkes shrieks. Th’ Shakers music isn’t always pleasant, but it’s necessarily gritty rock for downright grimy times.