The Rock Blogger

Khanate. Clean Hands Go Foul. 2009. 3.5 stars.

Grim, dirty doom metal featuring Alan Dubin’s raw vocals and Stephen O’Malley’s droning guitar work. The performances here are claustrophobic, rattled and demented. The title of Clean Hands Go Foul is perfectly descriptive as the structures of these four tracks unravel and disintegrate into meandering, fragmented fits of madness.

The first half of the album is particularly unhinged, as ghastly wails and cavernous production confine the band in a cold, dank corner. Things become more drone heavy in the second half, as the guitars take on a more atmospheric quality. The percussion is light in the mix as the sporadic pattering is used to mitigate the yawning terror of the band’s amplifier worship. Khanate have opened up a deep psychological space with their music, leaving ample room to ruminate on their agonies.

Clean Hands Go Foul delivers the same chilling drone-doom aesthetics as its cousin Sunn O))), though the vocals are far more pronounced, and ultimately distracting. If you can get past the shrill, solitary and unmelodious delivery, you may be able to comfortably dwell in the psychotic feelings of this disc. Of course, such an experimental and volatile act would bulk at any notion of comfort, so the vocals remain central to their sound. And they work at embellishing their insane thematic, though I find the lumbering pace to separate the elements from each other, leaving the work somewhat disjointed.

In the end, Khanate pull off the dilapidated asylum vibe with ease as there performance feels disturbingly genuine and raw. Drone or doom aficionados will be satiated by this. While it may not be as absorbing as some of the other more instrumental works in the genre, it still conveys ugly feelings with unflinching authenticity.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 at 9:42 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.