Khanate - No Joy (remix)/Dead
(Load)
Khanate's (pronounced Con-ate, if you were wondering) brand of metal is evil, hateful and minimal. Very minimal. 80% of the two songs on this EP are the resonance of a tuned down and heavily distorted guitar chord and ride cymbal. There are riffs, but they're played so slow they become something else entirely. There are vocals, but they're really strange (half hardcore, half evil Satanic banshee—think Gollum of "Lord of the Rings"). Had I ever thought what Slayer would sound like filtered through John Cage, I would have been in the general area of Khanate.
The first track, "No Joy (remix)," is (obviously) a remix. It was done by
James Plotkin (who also plays bass in the band), but really, it's hard to tell what remixing was actually done. Aside from the manipulation done to the vocals in the last couple minutes—subtle use of ring modulation, and nice looping, it sounds basically the same as the un-remixed track on the EP. Unless you count the last 5 seconds where the music is flipped around and played in reverse. The next song, "Dead" is taken from the recording sessions which spawned their upcoming full length. It sounds like a death metal version of Earth or Sunn O))) (which makes a lot of sense, since Stephen O'Malley of Sunn O))) is in the band).
As my introduction to the band, this is a very short and enticing taste of what they do. I'll definitely be digging further.
|
