Ah, the much-anticipated return of modern heavyweights Khemmis has finally occurred. This is the fourth album by the Colorado heavy hitters since their first release back in 2015. Now operating as a three piece, their previous albums have all been great – with their mix of traditional heavy metal, doom and even splashes of death metal here and there.
“Deceiver” starts off incredibly strongly. “Avernal Gate” is a great opener, with a melancholic hook-laden composition and the thick, gnarled guitar tone meshed with some truly memorable melody lines. Zach Coleman’s drumming is phenomenal, and it’s here within the first track that we get a glimpse of Khemmis flexing their wings and daring to try new things. Towards the tail end of the track, we get a little flurry of melodic death metal – only for 30 seconds or so – but complete with harsh, rasping vocals. This is an eye-opening moment, particularly for a band that capitalises on the powerful clean vocals that had become one of their key attributes.
“House of Cadmus” erupts next, to all extents and purposes coming off like the unholy child of Candlemass and Crowbar– a heavy, leaden, plodding tale of dread and terror. It has a bluesy feel to it, except on a cocktail of strong liquor and despair. The riffs here occasionally feel like wading through a thick grief soup. “Living Pyre” is next up, and picks up the pace again. In fact, the opening guitar work might have been at home on a Dismember record, with the buzz saw rhythm work having distinctly old-school feel, while the sang words maintain that peculiarly American doom sensibility, bringing to mind Solitude Aeturnus’ Rob Lowe in delivery. Once it gets to the second half of the track, things pretty much explode in a traditional Scandinavian death metal kind of way, and I for one salute it.
“Shroud of Lethe” not only reminds me of studying Keats back in my A level days, but actually has that kind of shattered romanticism that his poetry had. Gentle interludes and acoustic moments keep up the atmosphere while the rest of the music has a kind of progressive feel to it, with twists and turns and real moments of light and shade. If you had to have one song that really demonstrated what Khemmis can achieve, it would be this magnificent number in all its eight minutes plus glory. “Obsidian Crown”, while sounding like it should be a Dungeons and Dragons piece of in-game loot, is actually a fairly straight forwards head nodder and palette cleanser, before we get to closing track “The Astral Road”. This has got it all, brother (or sister). You want ripping solos? Check. You want a gallop? Oh yeah. You want to feel like the most true metal fan of all time? This’ll do it.
Then…then it’s over. Six tracks. Bang. In. Out. Delivered. It’s been quality, and the tracks are long (nothing here is sub five minutes). A superb collection of a band at their peak.
You’d be mad not to listen to this.
(9/10 Chris Davison)
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