Audiopile Review: It’s easy to take Khanate’s legendary status for granted. After all, how could any avant metal band featuring members of Sunn O)))), OLD, and Blind Idiot God be anything less than legendary? Well, back in 2001, when Khanate’s self-titled debut album was released, extreme metal was far from respectable among fans of left-field rock. Faaar from it, dude. The fact that bands like Wolves in the Throne Room and Blood Incantation enjoy acclaim beyond the metal ghetto is thanks in large part to Stephen O’Malley, James Plotkin, and pals. Their piercing, relentless sound burrowed a hole that all manner of high-minded miscreants has crawled through since. How did they manage this? That’s something else that should not be taken for granted: Khanate’s music is truly, truly extraordinary. An album combining the sonic water torture of early Swans with the roiling sludge of prime Butthole Surfers and the sociopathic angst of The Jesus Lizard? What self-respecting avant rocker could turn that down just because it was technically ‘metal’? Having grabbed some attention, Khanate set out for the next level. And 2003’s ‘Things Viral’ is certainly next level, reducing an already caustic sound to spindly, spidery strands of white-hot piano wire. Anyone who’d been thinking Alan Dubin’s shrieking vocals were already as inhuman as possible was in for a shock. Twenty years later, ‘Things Viral’ is still shocking and clearly a masterpiece. Absolutely fantastic to see these essential albums back in print, following the surprise release of the band’s 2023 triumphant comeback, To Be Cruel.

Sensing that defenses to their contagion were down, Things Viral (2003) withdrew from any familiar or friendly shapes. On their second offering, the band decelerated to its own tempo, freezing the decay of the debut in a shocking and powerful stasis. Pitchfork lauds, “Khanate have that skill for unfolding anaction in such excruciating detail that you’re slowly edged off your seat…Things Viral is extreme enough to appeal to people who don’t have any interest in met-al; the members cross metal pedigrees with noise-drone-art-damage bands– from Burning Witch and Old, to Sunn 0))), to Blind Idiot God’s Tim Wyskida on drums. It’s committed but not overbearing, too resolute and unyielding to resist; it’ll grab your skull and hold you achingly still as it thrashes through the depths, then totally, quietly wears itself out.”