Things Viral in Bloomington, MN

There are many adjectives that can be used to describe
Khanate
's
Things Viral
-- adjectives that include tortured, twisted, dark, morbid, despairing, ominous, and pessimistic. But one thing that this
doom metal
CD will never be called is fast. While
grindcore
,
death metal
black metal
, and
thrash
metal
are all known for their insanely fast tempos,
is the exact opposite --
Black Sabbath
-influenced riffs crawl along at an amazingly slow tempo. But then,
Sabbath
's albums were never as consistently slow as
-- and
never had a lead vocalist who sounded like
AC/DC
Bon Scott
.
Alan Dubin
's lead singer, does have a very
Scott
-like voice -- although what he does with it isn't very
AC/DC-ish
has always been a party band;
, however, is far from party music. This is
at its most depressing, and no rays of sunlight enter the world of despair that
Dubin
describes in a most painful, tortured way. Both musically and lyrically, this CD has an extremely dark cloud hovering over its head. And while some
is melodic and musical,
's ultra-slow brutality is dissonant, noisy, distorted, and abrasive.
has a lot in common with the equally unforgiving
Grief
; like
epitomizes
's lunatic fringe. Of course,
as extreme as
isn't everyone's cup of tea -- like
free jazz
techno
/
rave
music, this type of
is very much an acquired taste. But that doesn't mean that the members of
aren't good at what they do -- actually, they're great at what they do. And for those who have a taste for
and similar
doom
bands,
offers considerable rewards. ~ Alex Henderson