Khanate
Things Viral

I want to dedicate this review to Mementomori who, in case he still doesn't know this band (something I seriously doubt), will definitely appreciate it a lot.

Only from the mind of someone like Steven O'Malley could a creature like Khanate be born: for those who don't know him, he is the guy behind projects like Burning Witch, Sunn O))) and others less extreme but still tied to Doom (Thorr's Hammer).

It is possible that many of you don't even have a vague idea of what kind of music is proposed by all these groups, so, besides referring you to the respective reviews on this site, I will tell you in a few words what it's about. I admit I do not know Burning Witch well so I will limit myself to talking about Sunn O))), a project with which these Khanate have much more in common than just the founder. The genre proposed is called Drone or Drone Doom, a word that translated means "vibration"; the term is not fanciful, but rather given by the sensation experienced when listening to the music, whose frequencies are so low that almost only a vibration is felt.

For further insights, you could look up the pioneers of the genre, Earth, a band I personally don't appreciate much, or other groups such as Moon D))) (which mimic the Sunn O))) even in the name), Methadrone, Black Boned Angel, and surely many others I don't even know.

The Khanate, despite having many points of contact with Drone (especially in their eponymous debut), were never includable in the genre; pure Drone in fact does not allow the presence of vocals or drums, two elements that, in their way, are the mainstay of Khanate. The kind of music proposed could therefore be defined as Doom, but certainly, it would be a truly superficial label; the tracks are much longer than traditional Doom ones (up to twenty minutes), melody is totally absent, the voice is Scream, the themes dealt with are different and especially the way of composing the songs is completely different. All this to tell you that Khanate reminds of Drone, reminds of Doom but at the end of the day makes a genre of their own.

They debuted in 2001 with "Khanate", after which, in 2003, it's the turn of this "Things Viral", a CD that presents some differences from the previous one; in fact, the influence of the aforementioned Sunn O))) is almost absent, the compositions are more fragmented and more full of silences. Silence, you heard right; silence is a fundamental element in Khanate's songs that intersperse the monolithic chords with endless pauses and surreal silences.

The tunings, although it may seem strange, are not very low and far from the few Hertz of the cousins Sunn O))); they are slightly dissonant chords but never heavy, never destructive: the voice takes care of the destruction. Rarely have I heard such a strangled voice (perhaps only in Silencer), scratchy and exasperated as that of our man; if then, at the same time, you read the lyrics, you come to understand the degree of discomfort and despair that this project wants to convey. The goal seems precisely to be devastation, the pulverization of every hope, every certainty, every memory. Only indecision remains, what the ancient Greeks called "amekanía", that is incapacity to act, impotence, catatonia. Perhaps "Things Viral" is the theme of a disaster.

Alternatively, it can be a page full of notes and thoughts, one of those blank sheets without lines or squares, those in which you write words in every corner and they are all crooked compared to each other.

Thoughts and notes are separated by unfathomable suspensions, by breaths, by screams; yet nothing is sad. Everything is abstract, threatening but metaphysical, a ruin so great that it is unapproachable and in a certain sense, almost belonging to another world. "Things Viral" is not a troubled moment, but rather the disastrous end of a troubled moment: maybe that's why it turns out to be cathartic and after a few minutes spent with bated breath and a racing heart, you come around to the mindset of someone with their back against the wall, of someone who has nothing left to lose. The drum beats rumble, sometimes they are dry like whiplashes, sometimes accompanied by almost hypnotic cymbal hits. Together with the rhythm section, the guitar sets up the scenery for the voice, in other words, prepares the scene. Silence does the rest and the result is one of the most extreme, sickly, and heavy products to swallow available; if Drone, without voice or drum, can almost seem like the "black" brother of Ambient, Khanate's music has nothing of ambient music and is infinitely less dark than Drone and therefore more "plausible".

I believe that anyone who loves extreme music (not just metal, mind you, also music like that of Suicide or Coil) should give Khanate a listen, particularly the debut and this "Things Viral"; even though they are not doing anything entirely new (the groups I just mentioned did similar things twenty years earlier), they do it with such a bitter and relentless despair that you will regret "Frankie Teardrop".