Khanate 'Things Viral'

Originally released in 2003, Things Viral is the second full-length from Khanate, the uncompromising experimental metal group featuring Alan Dubin, Stephen O’Malley of Sunn O))), James Plotkin, and Tim Wyskida.

Where the band’s debut established their crushing approach to extreme music, Things Viral strips that sound down even further. Guitars hang in open space, drums arrive with punishing deliberation, and Dubin’s vocals cut through the silence with an almost physical sense of dread. Rather than relying on constant volume, Khanate use restraint, repetition and negative space to make every impact feel enormous.

Long-form pieces like “Commuted,” “Fields,” “Dead,” and “Too Close Enough to Touch” move at a glacial pace, blurring the boundaries between drone metal, doom, noise and experimental music. Produced by James Plotkin, the album remains one of Khanate’s most harrowing and distinctive recordings. Khanate
More than two decades later, Things Viral still feels extreme in a way few heavy records do: sparse, suffocating and completely uninterested in conventional structure or release.