KHOST - 'Buried Steel'






CSR278CD (13 March 2020)
CD in 6-panel digipak.
Barcode: 0641871745517

The brand new album from Birmingham industrial doom metal duo Andy Swan (FINAL, IROHA) & Damian Bennett (TECHNO ANIMAL, CARTHAGE), feat Stephen Mallinder (CABARET VOLTAIRE, WRANGLER), Eugene Robinson (OXBOW) and more... 'Buried Steel' is the fourth album from KHOST, following the 2017 release 'Governance'.

Themes and sonics of 'Buried Steel' range from granite and impassive to dreamlike and somnambulistic, in keeping with the promise - and threat - of the title, dwelling on slow, infallible ruination: a gravitational downthrust upon misshapen monuments and structures which are mangled, overgrown and increasingly forgotten. A monochrome landscape where nature reclaims and redefines us as time passes.

Recording of the album was marred with events such as an electrical fire which damaged some equipment. As a result, a number of tracks on the album had to be pieced together from damaged analogue elements such as reel to reel (Khost reel to reel RIP). From this point, the dynamic of some of the songs was altered, shifting their eventual outcome, particularly the tone of ambient work on Buried Steel.

Further guests on 'Buried Steel' include Syan, Manuel Liebeskind, Daniel Buess (16-17, MIR) and Stephen Ah Burroughs (TUNNELS OF AH, ex-HEAD OF DAVID).

CD in 6-panel digipak with artwork contributions from Talitha Bell, Syan and Craig Earp.

Track listing:

1. We Will Win (4:06)
2. Blood Gutters 6x4x1 (4:48)
3. Intravener (2:57)
4. Yellow Light (1:54)
5. Last Furnace (5:33)
6. Night Air (4:07)
7. Judgement Is Infallible (1:48)
8. Kent House (1:17)
9. December Bureau (5:26)
10. Vandals (1:57)
11. Dog Unit (4:13)
12. Two (1:19)
13. A Non Temporal Crawlspace (4:18)
14. Intravener In Dub (Mothboy Remix) (8:12)







Reviews:

"Industrial noisemakers Khost look to the darker side of life with their new album, Buried Steel. Arriving a few years after 2017’s Governance, Buried Steel is a meaner, darker, heavier album. All you have to do is listen to “Blood Gutters 6x4x1", with its mechanical-sounding drums, thick noise and growled vocals, to hear the evolution... unsettling" (Decibel)

"Unholy hell - the new KHOST record Buried Steel is the fucking BOMB! They create music that is dense with sonic fog and sinister as your worst nightmare. This project is full of the kind of industrial audio tension that will keep you on the edge of your brain! Respect due to Cold Spring releasing this heavy fucking gem!" (CVLT Nation)

"Their fourth album Buried Steel (Cold Spring Records) sees a band now truly at ease with its style, happy to have edgy two-minute psalms populating a set in the knowledge that they serve a purpose for the whole... It’s clear from the beginning that this is a more direct, claustrophobic record than Khost have previously released... Arguably this is Khost’s finest album since debut Copper Lock Hell, not least for its appropriate timing as the ideal accompaniment for this most unprecedented of times." (Ghost Cult)

"...[like] waking up handcuffed to a radiator in a damp, asbestos-riddled factory on an abandoned industrial estate... The run from Intravener till the closing slide into hell that is A Non Temporal Crawl Space (the latter closing out with a brief report from no less than the venerable Eugene Robinson of Oxbow) really is an impressive and immersive piece of work, an art house horror movie for the ears" (The Sleeping Shaman)

"Those familiar with the work of Justin K. Broadrick should find this a familiarly dark and oppressive landscape of mechanised death marches, hypnotic pulsing, and churning waterfalls of static.... a dark and dreary world. Ominous, metallic; the sound of technology and industry chugging in shadowy, smog-filled basements... The heavy atmosphere of “Buried Steel” is inescapable. There’s no catharsis here, no raging release, but there is a morose pleasure to be taken from this hypnotic, grey, swirling journey of droning, industrialised, metallic noise. Here horrors are always somehow in your peripheral vision, but they’re there for sure" (Blessed Altar)

"Imagining a world of towers and monuments turned to vine choked ruins, the new record finds Khost incorporating elements recovered and pieced together from damaged analogue equipment following an electrical fire, including a reel-to-reel unit; as such the ambient tone of Buried Steel takes on a different character from what was originally intended as the dynamic of the songs was altered" (Regen)

"This is earth shattering and kicking my ass hardcore. You can feel the pain, struggle and power in each and every track here. When you have guests like this on an album you know you are going in right direction Stephen Mallinder (CABARET VOLTAIRE, WRANGLER), Syan, Eugene Robinson (OXBOW), Manuel Liebeskind, Daniel Buess (16-17, MIR) and Stephen Ah Burroughs (TUNNELS OF AH, ex-HEAD OF DAVID). The Driving Electronic drums and those vocal passages and just apocalyptic tones I hear. Lovingly trying to fry those speakers. Khost thank you for making this Saturday well a viral pandemic is happening just a little bit less shitty..." (The Doorway To...)

“The allure of Buried Steel is in its ability to provide intensity, atmosphere and mystique both in its sound but also in its fragments of story telling. You can call it industrial doom, industrial metal, experimental metal or whatever, and there are elements of all those genres, but what Khost are doing is thoroughly unique. As I have said before, the members of Khost have been part of Techno Animal and Final and if you've ever been bludgeoned and discomforted by the noise of Godflesh, Ice, Techno Animal you'll be at home in the dystopian world of Khost. Buried Steel offers a nightmarish vision where the promise of industrial and technological progress has ceased, replaced by a horror story which submerges everything and everyone leaving nothing but discarded, rusty metallic elements scarring the earth” (Compulsion Online)

“Heavy, doom-laden, and with enough shrapnel to give you flashbacks, Buried Steel shows the duo in full force despite all the setbacks. Add to this a slew of guest appearances and Khost's latest is not one to miss… Buried Steel is a bit more than just standard industrial doom. Khost allows the tracks to move and take on all sorts of shapes, even if they're neither industrial nor doom. The sparseness and horns that come into play are welcome additions to the album, and really help to tie it all together… a fun and engaging album“ (4/5 Musique Machine)

”Buried Steel" è un'opera che allo stesso tempo conferma e dà un'ulteriore crescita al suono dei Khost, creando un'atmosfera unica dove la pesantezza della loro matrice doom/industrial viene non mitigata, bensì organizzata da intermezzi carichi di atmosfere rarefatte e malinconiche. Il risultato è una convincente rappresentazione di un vuoto esistenziale, di un horror vacui che non ci aggredisce all'improvviso, bensì ci logora lentamente tra schegge di rimpianti e tristezze. Un ascolto insomma che è tutto tranne che facile o fatto per passare dei piacevoli momenti: qui tutta una scuola di “negatività in musica” viene declinata con forte intento e capacità nello scolpire paesaggi interiori fatti di rovine e macerie.” (Ondarock)

“My preconceived idea of Khost was totally blown away… Buried Steel is a masterpiece of industrial nastiness. So gritty, processed, and filled with static melting into your mind. The white noise of industrial sounds turned into metal… intense, grinding guitars, thrumming through the speakers into your soul… It’s amazing to me that this is the work of just two musicians… It’s like a symphony of sounds from a steel foundry or some similar factory. Whether you like industrial metal or not, you need to check out this release from Khost” (4/5, Mosh Pit Nation)

“Khost have made a few excellent albums, very dark, very slow… “Buried Steel” opens with more of a Godflesh-type industrial metal track, slow, but not as slow as Khost can get… Then comes the magnificent track “Intravener” with a slow techno beat, extremely low vocals and minimalist background sounds… A wonderful new album” (4/5, Gangleri)

“…una strada differente da quella tracciata dal precedente opus, proseguendo sì nel solco di un doom metal industriale ormai tipico per l'act di Birmingham, ma stavolta con un suono ancor più ruvido, pesante ed opprimente, con una vocalità meno tagliente che vira verso il sepolcrale in maniera netta. Ne scaturisce un lavoro ancor più ligio ai dettami di un doom metal contaminato e sporco, in cui le dinamiche industriali si traducono sia nelle evoluzioni sonore più stridenti e noisy, sia in un drumming prevalentemente meccanico e macchinoso... i tratti distintivi che hanno reso Khost un nome di peso ci sono ancora tutti, oltre all'alta qualità sotto ogni aspetto” (Darkroom)

"...la fértil genialidad creativa de Andy Swan y Damian Bennett vuelve a revolucionar conceptualmente esta fusión musical del industrial con el doom en cada uno de los temas que vertebran este extraordinario álbum. De esta forma, Khost consolida su reputación artística con este cuarto álbum en su carrera musical, convirtiendo el nombre de Khost en sinónimo de garantía de calidad artística dentro de la escena non-mainstream actual más relevante e innovadora" (Lux Atenea)

“I Khost sono una fornace ardente, sciolgono le consolidate strutture del rock e danno loro una nuova consistenza, reinterpretata in base alle loro sensibilità ed alle loro esperienze, in modo da intrecciare l’aspetto più onirico della musica elettronica e quello più meccanico, robotico e tecnologico, trasformando il grigiore dello smog in vividi impulsi luminosi, il battere incessante del ferro in un cuore pulsante, l’elettricità in pensieri, percezioni, vita.“ (Parco Paranoico)

"La música en éste disco es básicamente industrial, pero con todas sus letras, porque aquí vas a escuchar sonidos como sacados de una fábrica, pero nada acelerado, todo bien denso, algunas guitarras con una distorsión que se pierde ante una percusión que parece fuese hecha por cilindros... y algunas voces narradas le dan esa atmósfera de máquina a los sonidos que vas a escuchar en éste trabajo... Un disco oscuro, pesado, denso, que te transporta como a un complejo de fábricas nocturnas, en las que al parecer nada bueno podría ocurrir. Recomendable." (Dargedik)

"A legendás angol ipari zenék suru esszenciáival, nyers, csiszolatlan kattogásaival. Egyértelmu tehát a Godflesh, az Ice és a The Blood of Heroes hatása, ami egyáltalán nem csoda, hiszen a Khost másik tagja az az Andy Swan, aki a Final (val Justin K. Broadrick)... Szó szerint a nyakamba zúdultak, mint egy nem várt hideg zuhany. Az ének helyett valami torz és állatias gépszörny ugat, mégis valahogy hipnotikus, nagyon behúz... konkrétan az egész album totális hatalom" (Metal Index)