KHOST - 'Governance'

CSR237CD (5 June 2017)
CD in 6-panel digipak (SOLD OUT)
Barcode: 0641871744930

"Governance" continues KHOST‘s immersion in themes of detachment and dissonance, and ruminates upon the exertion of wills that are not your own, and upon the ways to detect and trace the outlines of the presence(s) that may exert these daily wills upon you, day by day. It was written over the course of the 2016/17 Winter, during times of unease and sickness for the band, including one near-death experience. The resulting album is a hinterland of low resolution transmissions interspersed with broad concrete columns of distortion that loom suddenly from the dim landscape. Governance is like driving at night with your spirituality asleep at the wheel.

With demoralizing vocal terror, hypnotic nightmarescapes, frost-encrusted tones, and horrifying rhythms, KHOST’s Governance devastates the listener with nearly fifty minutes of entrancing yet hazardous tectonic doom-laced revulsion. Features guest appearances from Eugene Robinson (OXBOW), and Jo Quail, and includes a remix of the track 'Coven' by Tel Aviv artist Adrian Stainburner.

6-panel digipak. Temporarily sold out.

*Best Of 2017, Musique Machine





Track listing:

1. Redacted Repressed Recalcitrant
2. Subliminal Chloroform Violation
3. Low Oxygen Silo
4. Cloudbank Mausoleum
5. Demenized
6. [ ]
7. Coven
8. Depression
9. Defraction
10. Stockholm Syndrome
11. Coven. Adrian Stainburner Remix


Reviews:

"an aura of cult-like spiritual reverence... Governance deconstructs doom down to its base elements over 50 minutes, its hazardously industrial environs an exhausting maze of rubble that truly tests the stamina." (Metal Hammer)

"...this recalls Godflesh, Einstürzende Neubauten, Foetus, Author And Punisher and Gnaw Their Tongues at their most beautifully decayed and extreme. 'Governance' is industrial for people that know what industrial is, ferociously ugly and confronting music." (9/10, Terrorizer)

"The listener is pounded into a degraded state by the futility and dead weight of everything by this hellish noise; you’ll soon be on your knees and pleading for mercy...Still, them that enjoy the sensation of having their body slowly hammered into the ground with sledgehammers like a human tent peg will be in for a good time." (The Sound Projector)

"„Governance" durchgehend eine existentielle Verzweiflung.  Kellertief gestimmte Gitarren, schleppende Rhythmen, verzerrte Elektronik und tiefe Growls kennzeichnen die zehn Tracks. Das monolithische Klanggebilde wird durch Samples ätherischen Frauengesangs und durch das Cello-Spiel von Jo Quail aufgebrochen.. „Governance" ist ein äußerst dystopisches Album – „1984" trifft auf „Blade Runner". Eine beklemmende Hörerfahrung, die sich aus dem Wust klassischer Industrial- oder Funeral Doom-Veröffentlichungen heraushebt." (Legacy)

"...referring to Khost as just an “industrial” or a “metal” band feels like it’s doing them a disservice. There’s certainly elements of both, but the duo are walking their own path, sounding more unique and defiant with each release, and Governance is the most well-realised vision yet of their lysergic nightmare-scapes." (The Quietus)

"What Damian Bennett and Andy Swan have created is a nightmarish soundscape that will leave you feeling battered, bruised and irrevocably altered... Governance plays like the soundtrack of a movie about the final gasps of a being whose life force has all but extinguished, but refuses to die. If you have ever wondered what it is like to witness a battle for soul and sanity then Governance is the album for you" (The Ripple Effect)

"It is difficult to ask for more from music such as this, and Governance is an undeniable triumph. It may be abrasive, punishing, and deeply uncomfortable, but it’s also that rarest of things – an artistic success that also possesses a relatable, human edge" (The Sound Not The Word)

"Governance is certainly one of the most extraordinary releases of the year so far, and ultimately an extremely satisfying one" (9/10, Antichrist Magazine)

"...this is some seriously oppressive and intense industrial metal that leans more toward real deal industrial than anything... to listen to an album in 2017 and have little more than widespread genre associations come to mind is pretty damn cool, and certainly doesn't happen often" (Aversionline)

"Khost are masters of unease and on Governance they continue to evolve absorbing noise, ambient and experimental textures into their sample encrusted industrial doom. Uncompromising, brutal and thoroughly enthralling, Governance is a highpoint in Khost's brief discography." (Compulsion)

"teaming crushing doom with the bleak fury of industrial machinery, the duo continues to make their mark on the industrial underground... Khost show up fully prepared to pummel the listener into submission... a very solid album" (4/5, Musique Machine)

"Beware, this is one of the sickest, most brutal and mind confusing albums you'll have a chance to listen this year..." (Terra Relicta)

"Khost have dredged up a perfect soundtrack to the hell that is going on in the world during these terrible times, if anything it could help herald it onto the extinction that seems more and more inevitable on a daily basis... Governance could even be described as quite a harrowing listening experience" (Ave Noctum)

"Brutality pours out of Khost’s malevolent “Governance”. No light it allowed into these darkened gnarled soundscapes... Embracing the ugliest and most horrible of sound, Khost descend into the absolute abyss with the dominating power of “Governance”." (Beach Sloth)

"No-one in their right mind could ever call this a pleasant listening experience, it was never meant to be, but it is certainly compelling... nearly fifty minutes of entrancing yet hazardous tectonic doom-laced revulsion... this is absolutely essential." (MLWZ)

"...it’s impossible to listen to Khost without thinking about, or experiencing, horror... the kind that isn’t satisfied with jolting you awake with the occasional jump scare but seeks to push you further into the dark, suffocating you with its claustrophobic atmosphere and testing how far it can push you before you have to say, enough"." (Echoes And Dust)

"If Xasthur is audible sorrow, then Khost is audible fear... Fear manifests itself to be the most powerful drug to be abused, providing us with the strength and motivation to continually wake up each morning and thrust ourselves into an unknown that’s quick to entrap. Whether it be an uncharted revelation of the mind or an uncharted isle of Rite Aid, the opportunity cost does not become clear until it’s too late. And that’s where Khost leaves us - painted into a corner". (Drunk In A Graveyard)

"...un amplio abanico de matices musicales que enriquecen el universo underground con esta renovada visión de la música industrial fusionada con el doom metal, característica creativa fundamental para poder comprender y sentir la esencia artística de Khost... industrial-doom para hedonistas de la escena obscura de vanguardia". (Lux Atenea)

"ではファンの期待を超える壮絶な重低音インダストリアル・サウンドが満載された凄まじい内容になっています！地獄の底から聞こえてくるような恐ろしく歪んだボーカ" (GHZ)