Tofutopia
Label: Black Market Activities
Length: LP
Rated: NONE
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: Tofutopia
While Orlando-based Khann hasn’t (yet) taken to playing Wolves in the Throne Room–style shows out in forest clearings, the crustcore outfit’s path to acclaim has been decidedly different than that of other bands that share its ZIP code. Thanks to word of mouth garnered through skull-shatteringly loud house shows, the band was able to bypass the hustle-for-a-deal rat race most metal bands get locked into and went straight to releasing their first album on the nationally acclaimed Black Market Activities label, home of similarly extreme acts Ed Gein and the Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza. It’s a fitting home for Khann’s expansive abrasiveness; comprising songs as short as 30 seconds and as long as 9 minutes, Tofutopia shows off a careening and intense assault that, while complex, never comes across as self-indulgent.
While veganism and extreme metal don’t typically go together, Khann is one of a small group of bands who take the ideologies of crustcore punk and apply it to metalcore, resulting in complex and aggressive music that has a truly nonconformist message.
This article appears in Dec 5-11, 2007.