KHEMMIS ‘Khemmis’

KHEMMIS
Khemmis
Nuclear Blast Records

Colorado’s KHEMMIS began life as a fairly textbook stoner doom outfit – a new band with an old sound inspired by Conan the Barbarian tropes and plenty of THC. But over the past decade, the quartet has been working to open the aperture on its trippy “slow, deep and hard” sonic template, embracing everything from traditional metal to prog- and post-metal to thrash and a bit of death/black metal.

With the new self-titled fifth album, the script has now essentially been flipped. Here, KHEMMIS brings much more of its full-on metal side to bear, doubling down on riffiness and anthemics, streamlining its presentation and punctuating it with moments of genuine doom – instead of the other way around. In doing so, the quartet has crafted something that is modestly more accessible but certainly not lacking in muscle or heft.

The songs are comparatively tighter and more compact, for one thing, and there are more of them – eight in all, or two more than on any previous release. And only one, “Carrion King,” tops six minutes, whereas tunes had averaged 7 minutes per on all but 2020’s ‘Doomed Heavy Metal’ collection of live tracks and covers, including DIO’s “Rainbow In The Dark.” Indeed, the classic metal spirit exemplified by that song hangs, umm, heavy over ‘Khemmis.’

With its contemporary bluster, ample old school flourishes and surprising energy, the album feels way more IRON MAIDEN/PRIEST/THIN LIZZY meets, say, MACHINE HEAD than a variation on the trudging histrionics of BLACK SABBATH/SLEEP/ELECTRIC WIZARD. Punchy riffs and spiraling twin guitar leads from Phil Pendergast and Ben Hutcherson, grandiose swells, resonant harmonies and resounding choruses are here in abundance and there is considerably more chug than slog when it comes to the tempos. 

The steady swing in Zach Coleman’s drumming keeps things moving right along. He even drops some blasts to get the opener “Invocation” and “Carrion King” going with abandon, and while they soon dissipate, they grab one’s attention.

The doom, when it comes, is also a temporary measure, and is often accompanied by Hutcherson’s death metal growling that here is used more for emphasis than to contrast Pendergast’s soaring cleans or the pair’s melodious harmonies. Despite its furious start, “Carrion King” offers the album’s most prolonged doomy stretch, gradually cycling to a crawl over the back third as Hutcherson snarls “No one could save me from myself, Kingdoms torn apart, Become my hell.” “Grief’s Reverie” echoes ALICE IN CHAINS with its mellow, melancholy choruses, but has a spring in its step elsewhere via Coleman’s trotting pace.
While I wouldn’t go so far as to describe the rest of the album as buoyant, it often does have a determined, and occasionally feisty, chunkiness. Though the songs sometimes lose momentum, they never lack heaviness under the cascade of Pendergast and Hutcherson’s riffs. And their vocal teamwork makes everything here sound truly epic, even if the compositions have been tightened up. The growling may not really add much to the equation, but the harmonizing is great.

‘Khemmis’ makes for a logical next step in the band’s evolution. And it’s encouraging to see that KHEMMIS continues to move forward at a deliberate pace, hone its sound and build on its strengths as it goes. The album wears its “metal-ness” proudly and KHEMMIS delivers it with authority. You can’t ask for much more than that.

3.5 Out Of 5.0