Khan - That Fair And Warlike Form // Return To Dust - review
Khan - That Fair And Warlike Form // Return To Dust - review
Band
Khan Release date
October 01, 2025 Tracklist
01. That Fair And Warlike Form02. Return To Dust
A review by
musclassia October 03, 2025
The earliest recordings from Khan, such as On Silent Space, were psychedelic rock, as is this new album, but they take very different forms. That debut EP was rawer, with a bit of a garage rock slant to it, while subsequent albums featured more in the way of long-form languid hazy jams and fuzzy stoner rock riffs, culminating in their last album Creatures. The evolution from one album to the next was fairly consistent, but their newest release That Fair And Warlike Form // Return To Dust is quite a substantial jump, as it contains but two songs, each around 23 minutes in length, and take the vibes of their jammier songs on past releases to a whole new extreme.
Khan’s take on this kind of psychedelic/stoner rock odyssey feels very familiar, although the most obvious names to compare to aren’t coming immediately to mind; there’s points where the likes of Samsara Blues Experiment or Elder come to mind, but neither are especially close. Still, you won’t be shocked by the sound of the contents of this album if warned beforehand that it contains lots of slick grooves from the rhythm section, mellow psychedelic guitar textures, hazy vocals, and lush solos, with various heavier stoner metal riffs interspersed in between.
What is perhaps notable, however, is the consistently melancholic tone throughout much of the album. Pretty much all of opening song “That Fair And Warlike Form” possesses this wistful sadness to it, whether in the chiller psychedelic grooves or the heavier riffs. The song is largely languid in pace and tone, although occasionally the riffs up the tempo and inject a touch of driving energy. The production across the album is lush, with the appropriate level of delicacy to the lighter passages contrasted with a thick rumbling bass tone in the heavier parts. The song flickers back and forth between gentle grooves and regular (yet often quite brief) distorted riffs. The most consistent stretch of the song comes in the closing minutes, as a rich clean guitar motif is used as a foundation for gradual layering and escalation, culminating in a driving groove with delightful guitar soloing and well-integrated repeating vocal phrases arranged on top.
This vibe is initially maintained at the start of “Return To Dust”, although the track kicks off with a portentous tom rhythm and bass groove. After some sonorous sorrowful guitar leads and delicate clean guitar, there’s a bit of a shift about 5 minutes in, first to a slightly darker vibe, and then into a more rambunctious and groovy stoner metal drive. When the song turns really heavy, such as around the 10-minute mark, there’s a real dense rumble to the bass tone that is very satisfying. There’s perhaps a greater number of heavy riffs in this song, which are consistently hooky and satisfying, and there’s a few different flavours, whether it be the Middle Eastern hints in the section around 12 minutes in, or the Elder feel to the winding guitar lines around the 17-minute mark. As with the previous track, after a fair few jumps back and forth from heavy to softer sections, “Return To Dust” ultimately settles into a consistent groove for approximately the final 5 minutes, gradually dialling up the layers and volume with a delicious coalescence of underlying melodic riff and rhythm, interesting hazy vocal melodies, and more lush soloing.
That Fair And Warlike Form // Return To Dust doesn’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to long-form psychedelic rock, but the tone, pacing, and songwriting are all very well measured, meaning each of this pair of songs floats by effortlessly, with plenty of treats to be encountered at various points in each track. Considering both songs are individually about as long as the entirety of that debut EP On Silent Space, Khan have pulled off this ambitious project remarkably well, making what is clearly one of the standout stoner rock/metal releases of 2025.
Written on 03.10.2025 by
Written on 03.10.2025 by
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