Khemmis – Khemmis
Khemmis – Khemmis
Nuclear Blast
Release date: 12/06/26
Review by: Jon Deaux
5/10
A decade of doom and majesty ending with an album under one’s own name is either a mark of supreme confidence or a man officially taking on his nickname as his new surname. Either way, it is difficult to know with Khemmis, which makes them very intriguing.
It’s time to talk about the time I found myself listening to eight tracks from a band so deluded by the magnitude of their own self-importance that they actually decided to call their latest album after themselves. Don’t ask why my therapist told me not to refer to music as “an act of aggression against my central nervous system.” As far as I’m concerned, she obviously hasn’t listened to ‘Invocation of the Dreamer’ at 9am, and her opinion on this matter should not be considered as relevant. Neither of us asked her, and I don’t expect her to listen anytime soon either. I hope she’ll understand and leave me alone with my doom metal for once.
Khemmis are from Denver, Colorado, of course. Who else could produce four men who wear facial hair with such pride and, as they write in the press materials, “sincerely” use the word “benediction” when compiling the track list? Colorado, my friends, is the place where all sorts of fantasies converge: from mountain town vibe to craft beer culture to spiritually enlightened population. Add some Black Sabbath influence, and Khemmis is a result of the perfect combination.
We’ll kick off the review with “Invocation of the Dreamer”: an opening track that is as close to an embodiment of a leather-bound fantasy novel as you can possibly get without getting arrested by the law enforcement. I’ll admit: the riff was huge. A geological event. Something that was destined to happen from the dawn of time and could not be prevented by anyone in this universe. And the vocals are just…the vocals that will be screaming at your party about doomerism before you even have a chance to realize it and run away.
And then comes ‘Corpsebloom Garden’: a song that includes the word “corpse” in its title and yet somehow doesn’t inspire any dread, excitement, or concern whatsoever. I must have felt more horror reading a parking fine than when listening to this track. I must have felt more discomfort watching a ceiling fan slowly tipping over. Vocalist Ben Hutcherson shows up with his guttural growl, which the press materials claim to be “at his nastiest.” Ben, my friend, I’ve heard raccoons trying to gnaw their way out of trash compactors and that was nasty. This is a grown man from Colorado who took his time thinking about the tone, wrote down some notes, showed it to his colleagues, and workshopped it into something that looks dangerous, but fails miserably.
‘Grief’s Reverie’ is where the band attempts to make you feel something. The press biography says it’s “too sincere for bands trying to fit a mold.” Let me tell you this much: nobody in the history of heavy metal suffered from too much sincerity. Ever. So instead of wasting your energy on it, I’d rather you go read the biography again. Khemmis, my friends, appear to be bronze medallists at the World Championships of Sadness. I wouldn’t bother if some of the tracks weren’t genuinely affecting at certain moments.
‘Beneath the Scythe’ is where they finally come up with a genuine good riff. I even wrote it down…and then crossed it off the list. Why reward bad behavior?
‘Gilded Chambers’ is where drummer Zach Coleman finally surprises us with an unexpected move: he plays a fast intro. I mean that literally. The band press release was shocked. They describe it as a surprising move, and I suppose I agree. Zach played it, said “let’s try changing it a little” — the sentence which tells a story of a man with a very weak confidence in himself — and his bandmate Ben Hutcherson said: “Don’t fucking change anything!” The peak of creative expression has never seemed higher: a man wants to improve a drum intro and was bravely dissuaded from doing so. Call the Louvre. Waken up the curators of this place. I’m afraid we’ve discovered our ceiling.
The rhythm section, apparently, is significantly reinvigorated thanks to a new addition to the band in the form of bassist David Small, who came to join Khemmis in 2022. Here’s his description of the energy of the band on the first jam: “infectious”. David, with the utmost respect towards you, this word usually belongs to viruses, aggressive seasonal colds, and sometimes to heavy metal bands. In any case, it does not seem the highest praise you could give to a metal band. But whatever, they printed it on the press release and now it’s there to be read by the world. What is also mentioned is that David “locks in with Zach but leaves space to breathe.” Well, I’ll say it straight: you play a damn bass drum and manage to do so on time while having enough breath left. Outstanding!
‘Tomb of Roses’ and ‘Carrion King’ are two songs appearing in the middle of the album and looking like two guys from a Renaissance fair lost in the middle ages, but still thinking that this must be their time. There’s some galloping. And there are “merciless hooves of steel”. I don’t even know what to tell you. An adult human being wrote these words somewhere, probably even read them several times, and approved them. Somewhere there’s also a publicist, who saw the phrase, found it appropriate and added it to the press materials. Everybody here is mistaken, but at least I’m writing about it in this review now. ‘Carrion King’ in particular is as majestic as you could want a Viking movie trailer to be, which is a good thing, although I did not like it at all. I hated it. But then I listened to it three times in a row.
Finally, it’s time for ‘Benediction Tones’. The closer. The album’s spiritual climax. Apparently, it’s a place for Khemmis to release everything they’ve been accumulating since 2015. At this point, I spent about an hour listening to the album, feeling a strange state of mind that I’ll define as “doom-adjacent”. Halfway between being fully awake and falling asleep. The track was slow, grand, huge, and built up to a crescendo that can easily be described as cathartic for someone who believes in such concepts. I don’t believe, so I’ll just say that it was fine.
The album, as you probably guess by now, is called Khemmis since it is, apparently, the band “in its truest form.” Their truest form. Michelangelo used to be known as “in its truest form”, but now I see that Miles Davis had it as well. A great sandwich from Porto in 2019 was said to be “in its truest form”. Now, the concept has expanded to encompass heavy metal albums covered by oil paintings of glowing wizards. Apparently, this band moved past barbarians into esotericism. And Ben Hutcherson’s reaction after seeing the new artwork was “holy shit”. Yes, two words. I’ve spent eight hundred words, and he managed to get to the point way faster and much more efficiently than me. Maybe he’s the smart one. Maybe I’m the one with a problem.
Here’s the thing about Khemmis that I’ve been talking about throughout this entire review but cannot avoid anymore: they are excellent at what they’re doing. Really, annoyingly, inconveniently excellent. The tracks are grand, melodic, beautiful, and written by the band members, who have known each other for eleven years, trust one another, and know exactly what they want to do. And they’ve done it. Guitarist Phil Pendergast, who is now residing in Washington, claims that getting back together to record the album has proved “how badass it is that we get to even do this”. This sentence doesn’t work as a sentence of a man from a gym motivational video clip, but for the sake of my understanding, it makes perfect sense. And for some weird reason, I felt slightly emotional hearing it.
So, it is indeed true: Khemmis’ record is a ritual. An invocation of heavy metal joy. A celebration, as they like to put it. And yes, it is absolutely true: eight tracks of a doom metal band playing their tracks properly with proper cover artwork, a new bass player, and a drummer who drove back from North Carolina to play a fast intro in the middle of track five that could not be changed.
Track List:
1. Invocation of the Dreamer
2. Corpsebloom Garden
3. Grief’s Reverie
4. Beneath the Scythe
5. Gilded Chambers
6. Tomb of Roses
7. Carrion King
8. Benediction Tones
https://www.facebook.com/khemmisdoom
Order Khemmis: https://khemmis.bfan.link/
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Jon Deaux and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
