After three years since their demise, the final album by Khanate has finally seen the dark of night. After a lot of speculation as to whether it would actually emerge or not, my expectations were high and unfortunately they were not quite met. The improvised music was recorded during the sessions for Capture & Release with the vocals added much later. This approach has lead to a hit or miss album that is awesome when on form but a touch disappointing when not.
“Wings from Spine” has been long available on James Plotkin’s website as a work in progress and to finally hear the finished song is immensely satisfying. Alan Dubin snarls the lyrics like a feral demon. The erratic and frenetic music moves away from the slow pacing of old. This adds a ton of menace to the band’s sound but at the cost of tension. While tension is Khanate’s strongest asset, its lack is made up for by the power of “Wings from Spine.” However, the absence of any tangible dread on “Clean My Heart” makes it the weakest track on the album. It plods along aimlessly and creates no feelings of despair; it is a pale shadow when matched against Khanate at full steam.
One of the group’s biggest influences is Fushitsusha and, on “In That Corner,” this influence comes through clearly. Stephen O’Malley’s usually thick and bass heavy guitar splinters into shards of glassy notes as sharp as anything Keiji Haino can muster. Out of the four pieces on this album, “In That Corner” is the only one that truly captures the cosmic horror that is central to what made Khanate so magnetic and strangely, it is the one that sounds least like what they have done before. Hearing this brought back the same sensations as hearing those opening feedback wails on “Pieces of Quiet” on their debut album. Yet when I hear the blueprint Khanate sound of “Every God Damn Thing,” it is obvious to these ears that they called it quits at the right time. Not to badmouth this track, it is good but these guys have done this before and they have done it better. The CD version of this last track is over half an hour long (compared to just under 9 minutes on the LP) so it may be better when it has three times the space to develop but it is not out until next month so I cannot compare.
Like any tombstone, this last album serves as a reminder but not a replacement for what was. Clean Hands Go Foul does not maintain the same psychological intensity that previous Khanate albums were full of. Yes it still sounds heavy and yes all the stylistic hallmarks are present and correct but at times it feels hollow. The sense of impending doom that the group could create with their geological timing and masterful control of volume is not as apparent on Clean Hands Go Foul. Out of the four pieces, two of them are fantastic and the remaining pair do not match up to the high standards I expect. The weaker tracks could easily have come from one of the many Khanate clones that now exist and I cannot help but feel that this would have been better as a two track EP. However, I am delighted to finally be able to hear these last moments of one of my favorite bands but I do not think I'll be revisiting it as often as I have with the rest of their catalogue.
This review is from the vinyl version of the album so unfortunately no sound samples at this point in time, apologies!
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