From the label that recently punished my ears with the likes of Animosity and The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, as well as other noisy acts like Ed Gein, The Network and Architect, comes a slab of grinding Vegan chaos that’s a perfect fit next to their label mates as far as sheer, discordance tenacity, but like say the recent Harlots or Nights Like These, also manage to inject some well done and subtle post pock injections to the tasty brew.

With former members of Bodies in the Gears of the Apparatus in its ranks, Orlando’s Khann is typically brief and spastic with its 19 (23 if you include hidden tracks) mostly sub 2–minute bursts of screeching, calamitous noise (“Himalayan Green”, “Cleanse”, “Volcanic Lungs pt 2”, “Apprehension”, “Ignorance”, “Charisma”, etc) and that will please most fans of the Nu-grind/hardcore/tech movement, and is certainly the least grating of all the recent examples of this style (Heavy Heavy Low Low, Destroyer Destroyer, Dance Club Massacre, etc).

But is the album longer tracks (longer being a still short 3 minutes al the way to a droning 9 minutes) that really got my attention. It starts with the fourth track, “Anodynic Spheres” where about 1:09 into the introspective show gazing post rock, Khann kick into a stunning, almost melodic black metal blast beat (the injection of sublime melody briefly appears in “Quarantined” and “Squall” also), before settling down into more dreamy instrumentation. It’s a real WOW moment that indicates this band is far more than just sheer noise. The second moment of chaos breaking depth is the post rock introspection of “Bird” which is as good as anything put out by the likes of The Ocean, Rosetta or Transmission0 this year and at 5 minutes, is a quicker listen. Then “Volcanic Lungs pt 1” is 6 minutes of crumbling, sludgy atonal heft while “Lament” lone moment of reprieve.

9 minute Closer (not including 4 tracks of silence), “The Lone Hum”, is only about ½ song and ½ throwaway random noise, so ends the album on a bit of a sour note, but on the whole a pretty convincing affair that successfully melds abrasive and pensive with impressive results.

[Visit the band's website]

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