In presenting their fifth full-length album Denver, Colorado-based heavy/doom metal quartet KHEMMIS exude a new season of gratitude and heightened heavy metal faith in their messaging yet the work itself is tonally dire, melodramatic as ever in its solemn-yet-steeled stance. Set up to be the band’s defining work ‘Khemmis‘ is certainly their most measured and tightly writ material, carefully carved loose of their sludgier, at-times chaotically inspired excess. The resulting experience is unsurprisingly slick, an emotionally (or, oft vocally) driven affair in modern form which yet captures the gloom and introspection inherent to traditional ‘epic’ doom metal.

Khemmis formed as a trio back in 2012 aiming to “just play heavy metal” though their version of it was a mix of breathless psychedelic doom and stoner/sludge fuzzed grooves per their self-titled EP (‘Khemmis‘, 2013), a disowned relic and a sound they’d quickly vetted. Over the course of three albums via 20 Buck Spin their blend of heavy/doom and increasingly non-stoner sludge metal roar manifested as somewhat unique, wherein the hairier eclectic sludge of the post-‘Leviathan‘ era met the Candlemass derived dramatism of Crypt Sermon, more-or-less. I’d praised the band from the start, particularly enjoying the dire dark fantasy of ‘Hunted‘ (2016) while my fandom peaked nearby follow-up ‘Desolation‘ (2018) as I was pretty bought-in at that time, even grabbed a shirt when that record released. By the time their Nuclear Blast debut ‘Deciever‘ released in 2021 it was clear they were moving toward a less inventive, mostly melodic heavy metal craft seeking emotional resonance and readability beyond the salad of ideas they’d spawned into. What you’ll find on this debut is solidly traditioned heavy rock informed stuff b/w some of their own tics and sensibilities (such as the dual vocal approach, extreme metal interest, etc.) worn as gilding for heightened sensorium.

Presented as a celebration of heavy metal amidst a number of changes to their location(s), line-up and ~modus ‘Khemmis‘ self-titling reflects a reach for foundational statement as Khemmis continue to fully slough off their sludge metallic origins for the sake of a sharpened melodic standard… and more vocally driven music in general. Self-titled releases are typically reserved for signaling either defining or drowning moment in a band’s life cycle and the suggestion here is that the quartet wish to express a steeled existence. No longer rooted in Colorado, taking on a new member (David Small from their sludge/death side-project Glacial Tomb joins on bass guitar) and writing the album remotely might appear as great agents of change on paper but these are commonplace practices/realities for most bands anymore. The truth of it is that this album is simply more straight forward in its classic heavy rock structured impact, a gloomy and sweetly harmonized heavy metal album which is easy to enjoy.

The melodramatic high sensitivity and tact of Khemmis has not been left for dead, and I’m not sure anyone would accuse ‘Khemmis‘ of any sort of corporate rock transformation herein, but this is their most accessible, approachable work to date. Rife with impassioned and often dreary hooks linked to well-writ, expressive lyrics the whole dark fantastical inward-looking nature of the band is their greatest asset as they leave behind higher contrast sub-genre stylization and the sonic excesses of their beginnings. The immediate hooks of pieces like “Beneath the Scythe” and slower burning “Carrion King” later on emphasize this while still reaching for heavier doom riffs and bits of extreme metal in order to keep things spicy. The latter piece even dives into a nuclear death metal guitar tone simply for effect, there are smaller devils in the details here and the rest is sombre soldiery abounding.

If you hate the whole dual vocal growl + soar thing the band’ve always done don’t expect a full exodus here on ‘Khemmis‘, in fact the first vocalization on the album via opener “Invocation of the Dreamer” is a sort of blackened snarl into the void. With that said the main subject is yet Phil Pendergast‘s glassy and increasingly harmony rich timbre, still a perfectly suitable foil for the kicking trompe through that first piece as Khemmis head into the album with a heavy/doom metal entrenched song. The harmonized layering involved isn’t exactly fueled by Cantrell-isms so much as the more theatric vision of peak Marcolin and Dio (among others) along a more traditioned route. If you are otherwise missing the hairier edge of the band’s late 2010’s era you’ll still find growls on “Corpsebloom Garden”, “Grief’s Reverie” and “Gilded Chambers” just as we’d found on ‘Deciever‘ but here more than ever these are presented as intensities suited to each piece’s narrative and less for the sake of stark contrast.

“Grief’s Reverie” is the standout of the first half per my own experience, a sweet spot where morose doom and quieter moments yield a dark inner space, emphasized by a circularly spun groove reprised throughout. I’m not sure the death metal grunted ~third verse will suit every listener but as a longtime fan of the Khemmis this is one of the more tempered, meaningfully placed version of this dynamic which suits the arc of the song well. Of course Side A has bigger hooks down this path as the album-selling “Beneath the Scythe” and its circa ’98 melodeath stoked power metal machinery offers the closest thing to a ‘The Stygian Rose‘-esque event on the full listen for anyone looking. Though the tone of the album is screaming for relief from the miasmic gloom at hand by the fourth track I’d appreciated the weight of the first half, some of the most potently focused work from the band to date.

Side B has somewhat more pronounced tonal variety on offer. The signature power-sludge drive of “Gilded Chambers” and the cage-shaking rustle of standout “Carrion King” carry the momentum of the first half well while digging into heavier tumult. The latter and its aforementioned scrape into what sounds like HM-2 gunked guitar layers offers one of my favorite moments on the full listen, a doomed and miserable side-step which hits just as the album’s vocal theatrics begin to run low. Closer “Benediction Tones” generally reinforces the solemn tread through ‘Khemmis‘ while finding a reasonable exit point from its entrenched mood, less a grand finale and more a multi-tiered climb out of its inherent dread. Though the full listen begins on a long-sustained note we do ultimately find the burl of Khemmis in its greater arc.

As a modern heavy metal album braced by sombre melodic expression ‘Khemmis‘ is refreshingly dark, effectively sullen in its introspective process and despite the hi-fi spark and ambitious construction afforded it. Khemmis have essentially reigned in the flood of inspiration and wealth of interests fostered over their last several releases and built a relatively compact, emotive heavy/doom metal record of it — a feat which should bear fairly broad appeal. Though there is an obvious “single” or two included and the gloss of their work certainly shines through it’ll be the consistent moodiness of this record which sustains it in listener’s minds. It may not be a total sea-change all things considered but it may very well be the most matured, measured and memorable feat from the band to date. A high recommendation.

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