Khanate – Khanate

[Russell]

Khanate – Khanate
Southern Lord Sunn14 2001
By Russell Garwood

Khanate seem to think they can gain musical extremity by lacking any talent whatsoever; their compositions are simplistic to the point of non-existence. This self-titled debut album consists of five songs devoid of musical merit but drenched in an evil tortured atmosphere. They set out to perform "Ultra gravitational hellish brooding black doom metal with inhuman vocal constructs". With (fragmented) lyrics like “Now I’m under rotten sky… Choke, choke, want you choked. Change, face to blue. Sky empty, blanket of you - blanket of nothing. No…stars…out " (Under Rotting Sky) and “Under a bed, a leg and a saw, red teeth gnaw, no more whine, no more whine, quiet time” (Pieces Of Quiet) they have certainly succeeded. Unfortunately I consider myself a fan of music, not concepts or novelty.

The five "songs" consist of simple guitar bar chords and feedback or single pinched harmonics with bass that follows the guitars exactly. The drums too are straightforward, leaving huge gaps in the music, and the screeched "vo-kills" can become annoying. These elements are then put together in a simple phrase and repeated for up to eighteen minutes depending upon the length of the "song". The atmosphere created is impressive, however, and “Khanate” is perfect if you’re looking for a chilling and disturbing hour or so; it is easy to imagine this as the soundtrack to a murder.

Khanate manage to fit the same number of ideas in "Khanate" as many bands do in a bar. If you are a fan of “Blackened metallic destruction for the dead” such as Burning Witch this is a must, and if you don't mind simplistic concept "music" you can probably tolerate it; if you are looking for skill and integrity however, Khanate are not for you...

 

[dill_the_devil]

Hmmm... I can see your points here, even though I think this album rules... hehehe...

 

[Russell]

It is a fairly biased review I usually try to say just what the music is so people make up their own minds, but this one was getting so many rave reviews I felt I should say what I thought... But I stand by what I say! =) They achieved what they set out do to extremely well, I just don't consider it music.

 

[dill_the_devil]

Yeah, good stance to take. I agree that there's hardly any talent or complexity involved in what they do, but you did give them credit for achieving their goals. Possibly the fairest review of this album I've ever read... \m/ I salute you!

 

[Russell]

Why, thank you *bows* Off back to gabber now. Thats real music

 

[xfer]

Hmm. A Beethoven symphony is composed of thousands of individual notes, but each individual note isn't gauged for its worth; they must be taken as a whole. I think Khanate iterates this concept one step further by purposely minimizing the importance of individual notes while maximizing the importance of the whole. Yeah, it's not eminently singalongable, but if that's what I liked about music I'd like N'Sync, eh?

I think you can say that "Khanate" is more purely music than almost anything out there. But do we want music that's close to pure, or do we want a mixture of music and entertainment? Personally, I like the mixture, which is why Khanate isn't my SUPER ULTRA FAVE BAND or anything. I think most people would agree with me (except for the N'Sync fans, who just want entertainment ).

Anyway, I must admit the review was well-done and informed and although, indeed, a bit biased ("tolerate", "integrity", etc.) it wasn't nearly as biased as it could be and is still useful to someone thinking about checking out the band.

 

[Russell]

The thing is Khanate's 18 minute compisitions consist of around ten notes, repeated endlessely.. How, pray, does this maximise the importance of the whole?

In a composition the mixture of notes and how they interact gauge for its worth, and I feel confident in saying that rarely do Khanate have more than one note playing...What you are saying, in effect, is that by consisting of less the band are making the whole stronger, which I disagree with...

I don't mind music that isn't catchy or singalongable, but I stress the word *music*. What I look for in music is talented song writing or talented musicians, and while Khanate may be this they don't demonstrate it well... I can confidently say I can play every part of every instrument on this album sight reading...I don't see due to the lack of melody or any skill whatsoever in song writing this is making the music purer... If it would white noise would be the purest form of music, which I definitely don't think it is...

 

[dill_the_devil]

Hehehe... we could take this over to the GMD forum as a debate - personally I reckon it comes down to personal opinion, as do so many other things. Some people may love the staggering complexity of classical composition, others may be just as enamoured by the simplistic but bludgeoningly effective music of Khanate - different strokes for different folks, y'see.

 

[Nate The Great]

I think Khanate, like most doom metal, is trying to create an atmosphere. I suggest people judge this album within its genre (doom). Khanate creates a totally bleak, black, and morbid atmosphere. For an excellent review of this album, coming from a perspective within the doom genre, read Terrorizer's review. I can't remember which issue.

 

[Russell]

The thing is I can see no relation between thise and doom I like (Anathema, Early Katatonia etc.) who create atmosphere through their music and compoistional skills. Terrorizer's review was far more biased than mine, it said next to nothing about the "music" hence me buying this album...just how brilliant it was and every-one should own it...

 

[Nate The Great]

I guess I was referring to bands like Electric Wizard, Burning Witch, Cathedral, Warhorse, etc. I realize bands like Anathema or even Opeth are sometimes called doom. I know classification of different groups within a genre is sometimes pointless, but the first four bands I mentioned all seem to fit with Khanate. By the way, am I incorrect in my classification of Khanate, Electric Wizard, etc.? Maybe we could call Anathema progressive doom and Khanate degressive doom. Either way, both Anathema and Khanate do an exceptional job of creating the desired atmosphere. By the way, you are probably right about the Terrorizer review. However, when writing a review for a mass audience, I believe we should base the review from within the bands particular genre. And, when a band defies any genres and still comes up with something we all love (Opeth?), we should all bow down to that band.

 

[Russell]

Cathedral I have some of, and I've been meaning to get some Electric Wizard, thanks foir reminding me I tend to call Anathema melodic doom, but hey its subjective... I think there is a relation to doom in Khanate, and they certainly consider themselves doom, but I don't really... But they're evil, and doomy, so its probably the closest you can get... Its true, my favourite bands are invariably those that mix genre, it shows originality and I respect it more than sticking steadfastly to a set style..

But, about the basing bands in the genre, I'm sure Khanate are on of the top in their field, its just in reviews I try and describe the music (usually ) and not say a great deal about what I think of it so people who read it can choose. I tried to do that above... but let some personal feelings creep in. While reviewing in a genre is good, I don't think it's as useful as describing the music itself independent of genre..while comparing it to others, however as I don't have a great deal of the Khanate brand of doom I couldn't really do that. I wrote too much!

 

[dill_the_devil]

Khanate are more sort of Extreme Doom like Burning Witch or Sunn O)))... it's almost a different genre entirely to the doom/death of My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, Anathema, Katatonia et al.

 

[Nagle]

In fact, most doom metal bands (or rock bands of any sort) play 10 notes over and over again in their songs (more frequently 7). Hell, there are only 12 possible notes to choose from unless you get microtonal! I appreciate Khanate because they don't try to sucker the listener with the same tired progressions that are guaranteed to get a label like "melodic" or "emotional" or "sad" slapped on them in the metal world (see: i-VI). They generally hit the listener with sounds that are fresh and unfamiliar and that sort of thing polarizes people's opinions.

Khanate's music also changes over a time span that's not immediately perceptible to people unacoustomed to listening to such slow doom. Speed-wise, My Dying Bride sounds like grindcore by comparison. It was initially really hard for me to figure out what was going on because I mainly listen to music that moves along rather quickly. Most of my favorite metal (and I don't even really listen to that much of it) is either tech/progressive or really fast death metal so it took me a few listens before I could appreciate it. My persistence was greatly rewarded, however, when I was finally able to get the sound of this band in my ear.

If you want to talk about bias in reviews, I should probably lay my musical prefrences out on the table before I conclude my comment: I am biased towards any music that is legitimately avant-garde or extreme. That's not to say that extremity is all I look for or that all the music that I listen to is extreme but it is a quality that I value greatly. That's why I listen to so little metal - because not very much of it is extreme apart from in certain trivial senses. I like to listen to music that has the courage to go out on a limb and do something different. Khanate definitely does that. Their music is brutal, extreme, original and genuinely out-sounding and I sat through the album a number of times because of that to see if I could understand them. My repeated listens were greatly rewarded by some of the freshest sounding metal I've heard in quite some time.