Surprise! Khanate — the harrowing doom-drone supergroup featuring members of Sunn O))), OLD and Blind Idiot God — have resurfaced after a 14-year hiatus. Without warning, the band dropped their fifth album, To Be Cruel, overnight, the three-track, 60-minute follow-up to 2009's Clean Hands Go Foul. Crank it above via YouTube.
"Stephen [O'Malley] and I had an opportunity to record music together for a Drag City compilation in 2016, it was then that we recognized we wanted to do more together," drummer Tim Wyskida commented. "We booked an incredible studio in Woburn, England, to record the guitar and drum parts that would become the basis of To Be Cruel. We shared those initial recordings with James [Plotkin] and Alan [Dubin], who were as motivated as we were to create new Khanate music. James began arranging the material and developing new ideas as soon as he heard the tracks, and Alan immediately started crafting the lyrics."
Of those lyrics, Dubin added: "The album viscerally and metaphorically portrays a self-immolating destiny that perhaps ironically blames outside entities. There is a need for revenge but… against who and why?"
To Be Cruel is due out in physical formats — including limited-edition vinyl variants — on June 30th and available for pre-order now.
