Pitchfork rates Khanate – Clean Hands Go Foul: 7.6

Clean Hands Go Foul, the fourth and likely final full-length from late experimental metal outsiders Khanate, deserves a warning label: “Not recommended for those with mild-to-severe mental disturbances,” it could read before countering, “Well, just promise not to hurt anyone, OK?”

Its brittle, monstrous tones shake whatever space they enter. Riffs coil, shatter, and splinter into notes that disperse like buckshot. Words trade mythology for purely imagistic hatred. You could imagine Khanate pushing some feeble soul over the edge. This was true of Khanate on their previous LPs, but Clean Hands Go Foul– which the band recorded in 2005 before breaking up in 2006– ups the aggression until it feels like a score for nervous breakdowns and wanton rampages.

Khanate once found a riff and marched behind it, cutting it open and bleeding it until but a din of feedback or a vortex of noise remained. Clean Hands doesn’t worry so much for the riff or the rhythms, though. Instead, it aims directly for the blood, or the sense that these songs are for, well, ending the world. Cuddly stuff, really.

Continue reading: Pitchfork: Album Reviews: Khanate: Clean Hands Go Foul.

Tags: Alan Dubin, Clean Hands Go Foul, grayson currin, Hydra Head Industries, hydra head records, James Plotkin, khanate, pitchfork, stephen o malley, Tim Wyskida

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 11:26 am and is filed under 2009, Album of the Day, News . 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.