BAND OF THE WEEK: Khanate
SURPRISE!
What a mindblowing surprise we had in store for today, eh? Let’s be honest here - by now, even a die hard Khanate fan such as myself, the type of guy whose DJ stage name is the title of one of their songs, didn’t have all that much hope of seeing these guys back together again. Not that there was any kind of falling out between them, as vocalist Alan Dubin stresses in the chat we had today (see below!), they’ve always remained great friends, but the visceral, (rotten) heart-on-sleeve kind of vibe that emanates off this music has always suggested it might be something they wouldn’t particularly want to go back to. A specific-period-of-their-lives, Strapping Young Lad/Devin Townsend sort of relationship, somehow. Well, today that feeling was fortunately proved wrong, as the quartet, featuring aformentioned master of nasty demonspawn vocals himself Alan Dubin, alongside fellow legends Stephen O’Malley, James Plotkin and Tim Wyskida, a fucking dream/nightmare line-up of experimental heavy music if there ever was one, announced their sudden return to activity, accompanied by a new album already available on all streaming platforms, ‘To Be Cruel’. So, first things first. Shall we?
That’s right, true to their usual form, it’s only three songs, but all of them floating around the twenty minute mark, and each of them containing multitudes of profound negativity. Perhaps more than even before - I mean, Alan does say down there that the only clear idea he had previous to the album being done was that it “had to be vicious”, so… -, Khanate sound like a purge. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been one of the few in on the secret a couple of weeks before today, so I’ve been living with ‘To Be Cruel’ for a while, and I can tell you that fortunately time heals nothing, in this case. This album is like a repository for all the worst parts of us, and the most fascinating part of it is, that doesn’t mean just hatred, disgust or spite. There’s more at play here. This refined songwriting, with added wild experimentation in the percussion aspect, with several soul-bending unexpected effects both coming from the guitar and from Plotkin’s sound manipulation expertise, and of course with those vocals (also drawing from a wider palette, as we have been witnessing during the development of Gnaw), seems more capable of extending the spectrum of feelings evoked, and there are several sections that will just dredge up absolute misery, sadness and despondency in the listener. Have Khanate matured? Is the most horrible-sounding, void-staring music in the world even capable of other feelings? Well, apparently so. Amidst the ugly violence, the sewer fumes, the abject horror of it all, but yes. I don’t see how we could have asked for more. Well, we could have wished for all their past albums to be available on streaming services, for them to be planning live shows, and to consider doing more new music after this. I guess today is just one of those days where everything seems to work out as we want, right?
Welcome back, Khanate! This detestable cesspool of a world has missed you as a harrowing reminder of what its reflection looks like.
You can find Khanate on Bandcamp, Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.
’To Be Cruel’ is out now digitally. Pre-orders for the vinyl are up on their website or their Bandcamp and ship around June 30th.
Hang around for the little chat we had today with Mr. Dubin, right after the jump.
“We brought some explosives with us [to the recording], we also brought glass to smash, metal sheets to bang on, that kind of stuff.”
- Alan Dubin
So how did this long-awaited return take place, finally?
Alan Dubin: When Khanate decided to stop working together, after a little while we… I mean, you can take Khanate out of the equation, but we’re all still really close, great friends. I think the essence of Khanate has been looming in our psyches and, you know, never say never. I personally didn’t want Khanate to end, I was ready to keep going. But I think it was best that we let it cease for the time being. Years went by, we would kind of talk about it, we would get lots of offers… like, “how much would we have to pay you to do our festival?”, that kind of thing. I think we entertained the offers for maybe a few seconds, and then we’d just be like, naaaaah. But still, it’s like I said, it was looming there, in our psyches, always. We’ve worked together, too, individually. I worked with Stephen and Mr. Vainio, rest in peace, on the ÄÄNIPÄÄ album. Tim and Stephen recorded some stuff together early on too, and I think that now the timing just felt right. Tim went over to Europe, he recorded some stuff with Stephen, and it was just really, really great. Sounded like the backbone of Khanate, there were just some amazingly powerful sections of music. I remember Tim brought it back – you know, Tim and I would hang out all the time, every weekend we would wreck New York city, go to bars and stuff [laughs] – and he was like, “I’ve got this recording, I wanna run this by you, just listen, what do you think?” And I was like, “holy shit! This is… Khanate, right? Hell, it sounds really good.” I was still a little weary, because I only just heard some sections, but it was really intense shit. The guitar playing, the tone was insane, the drum capture… I was like, this could probably be something. [laughs] I think I was actually the last one to completely commit. I was excited at the potential Khanate songs that could come out of this music. It sounded great, but I still needed to hear it fleshed out more. But once I did, I was like, fuck yeah. Undeniable.
How would you compare this to your old albums? To me, it sounds instantly like Khanate, but at the same time it sounds fresh too.
Alan: First of all, the actual recording and instrumentation are different, that adds to it. There’s a lot more percussion. I’m just talking about the physicality of the actual thing now, but yeah, as to what makes it different as a whole… There are some callbacks to the previous albums. There are feelings there, there are riffs that could have been on the self-titled, or on ‘Things Viral’ or even our last album, but this is totally new. It just formed like that, there were no pre-conceived notions. I, for one, specifically wanted this to be really vicious. That’s the only pre-conceived idea I had in my head, that it had to be vicious. At the time, when I started writing these lyrics, I actually was going through a bout of insonmnia and I was just on edge and cranky all the time, and it sparked my imagination for these fictional horror stories.
That sucks, but also kind of good timing, right?
Alan: And it’s funny, the insomnia went away after writing these lyrics! I got some crazy stuff out…
I suppose the question you’ll be getting the most in these first days is what now? Are you an active band, will there be live shows, more records?
Alan: Yeah, there will be live shows, there’s already something on the books, which will be out there soon, but it’s not many. We really want to feel it out before we go on a giant world tour, aboard a Concorde jet. Same with going beyond this, with another album. We’re dipping our nubs in the water, so to speak. Our severed toes! [laughs] But we’re psyched. For me, this is my favourite Khanate album.
That’s a strong statement!
Alan: It is. For me, personally, the one that had set the bar was ‘Things Viral’. It might be because it’s new, and I’m sure there’s a bit of that too, but I think that right now, overall, these compositions just work. It’s visceral, it gets into your psyche… but this is just me, if I’m talking as a fan about my own stuff! [laughs]
The recording was left in very good hands… splitting it between Gomez and Colin [Marston], I can’t imagine a better tandem. With Randall mixing it on top of it all. How was it for you, doing it with Colin?
Alan: Yeah, Colin was great. First of all, he is hilarious. He really does know what he’s doing, but he also let us go a little apeshit in the studio, especially with the percussion. He kinda drew the line when we brought some explosives with us, but we also brought glass to smash, metal sheets to bang on, that kind of stuff, and he was really open to that.
Explosives, glass and metal sheets, for “percussion”?
Alan: Yes!
I don’t think you’re running out of ideas anytime soon, no.
Alan: We’re always evolving! [laughs]
The internet has been going crazy ever since word got out this morning. Did you ever think about people’s expectations at all when you were doing the album?
Alan: First of all, we’re 100% doing this for ourselves. The music that came out of the original capture is so strong, then the arranging by Jim that made it all come together, and then the vocals, that really defined all the songs. Once everything came together, we were just like, holy shit, this is fucking amazing. We’re so into it, that I don’t think we cared too much about what people might think. But it’s so fun to see that right off the bat people are digging it. Tim and I used to joke, way before the album came out, that we were so looking forward to all this live stuff, to playing in some great places, and then we’d probably get on stage and we’d just see a tumbleweed, just a janitor mopping up, because no one would give a shit. It can go either way, but no matter what, we’ve got this album.
Hey, Stephen might be used to it, those first Sunn O))) shows in Europe had their fair share of tumbleweeds and janitors…
Alan: Yeah, Khanate had some tumbleweeds too, that’s just what happens. But all the old-schoolers are going to be into it, I’m sure. They’re gonna go apeshit and fucking love it. I assume!