‘Like Neurosis, you know they’re doing something unique with the same tools as everyone else, but you can’t explain the perplexity or the promise of excitement they dangle in front of you,’ said Scream Blast Repeat of the last Khemmis record in 2021. The same applies to album number five, but they appear to have found their comfort zone.
Opener, ‘Invocation of the Dreamer’, starts like a doom metal song but it soon finds a unique identity as a forceful piece of traditional heavy metal angled in a prog landscape. The drums are agitated; the guitars caked in distortion and expressive in their manipulation of the fretboard. You never know what the structure will be in a Khemmis song, and that’s the case with this effort. The anthemic singing can be brought to a halt at the flick of a pedal. Here, harmonised guitars follow a mournful passage of vocals without infecting the adventurous mood.
Baroness fans should already count Khemmis among their favourite bands. If not, ‘Corpsebloom Garden’ is a chance to get acquainted with the Colorado quartet. Throughout this expedition, your vision is hazy, and the path ahead is never certain. Death metal growls appear like the talking animals of Narnia. Slow tempos settle when both vocalists harmonise in full lamentation. Yet it dawns on you at track three (see ‘Grief’s Reverie’) that all the songs merge into one despite the abundant space in each composition and the deliberate avoidance of orthodox structures. This is the key to demystifying Khemmis: their riff hungry, neo-progressive doom soars from the lungs of its two singers and receives its magical touch from the drum stool.
So, why do we not see the kids wearing their t-shirts? ‘Beneath the Scythe’ is the wet dream combination of Number of the Beast and …And Justice for All, and it makes you wonder why this group appeals only to critics when the old school thrashers should also be on board. The gallop here is as chivalrous as Manowar, yet it has the weight of Mastodon behind it. ‘Gilded Chambers’ is also easy to enjoy without over analysing it. D-beats and palm-muted rhythms lead to the tom drum ritual of the chorus, only it’s not a chorus, and it doesn’t occur again. This is the main weakness of this album. ‘Tomb of Roses’ stands out for its delicate folk embroidery at the beginning and then disappears into another gallop of heroic heavy metal, which ought to be energising but is somehow hard to recall on repeat listens.
The pentatonic proto-death metal of ‘Carrion King’ reveals yet again the multi-dimensional nature of this band. Only one thing is predictable here when the half-timing drums slow things down for the dual vocal harmonies to plead, “Light above, relieve me from this world.” Hasn’t this already happened in every other track on this LP?
The unique ability of Khemmis to avoid any semblance to Alice in Chains (the dual vocal harmonies), Trouble (the riffs), and Paradise Lost (the death-doom textures) is a testament to the originality of their sound. It’s all here in the closing ceremony of ‘Benediction Tones’, and you cannot help but doff your cap to them even if you don’t know why they deserve such deference.
Kirk Houghton
Verdict
Release Date: 12/06/2026
Record Label: Nuclear Blast
Standout tracks: Invocation of the Dreamer; Corpsebloom Garden; Beneath the Scythe
Suggested Further Listening: Trouble – Trouble (1990), Paradise Lost – Icon (1993), Hooded Menace – The Tritonus Bell (2021)