KHEMMIS – Khemmis

vote
7.5

• Bands:
  KHEMMIS
• Duration: 00:42:00
• Available from: 12/06/2026
• Label:

• Nuclear Blast

Let's start like this: “Khemmis” is a good album – if we have any works like that.
Having removed this premise, the truth is that there are bands from which we expect a little more than a 'good' album, and this is the case: after five years from the last full-length – that “Deceiver” which had cooled our spirits a little due to its being an album (perhaps like this one) which was really very beautiful but which did not reach the emotional heights of its predecessors – we expected a little more. And perhaps “Deceiver” is precisely the starting point for describing this new work: it marked a turning point within the band's sound, until then much more epic doom in the strict sense, with a slightly melancholic streak that enhanced the underlying power of the group.

“Khemmis”, the fifth work of the American combo, standard bearer of a vigorous epic doom metal (more metal in the sense of heavy, than doom, to be honest, although the epic part remains clearly evident) is an album full of formally impeccable moments: starting from the opening by the edited “Invocation Of The Dreamer”, a very enjoyable but average song, supported by an introduction that couldn't be faster, we understand that the path taken by “Deceiver” it is the one for which the band decided to opt compared to the more incisive and dreamy debuts of wonderful albums like “Hunted” or “Desolation”, where the heavy metal vein was certainly more balanced with that doomy.
However, there is no shortage of healthy slowdowns, seasoned with epic melodic openings (the kind that make you raise your sword to the sky to go and cut off the heads of our enemies) very emphasized and of great quality, just as there is no shortage of Iron Maiden-style passages with twin guitars, as in “Grief's Reverie” but here and there throughout the entire album; also in this work, among other things, we return to a bit of growl in the singing, and this well balances the clean and eighties-like voice of a Phil Pendergast who is always on top.
The album has its pearls: “Beneath The Scythe” is a Madonna song, with a harsh and galloping introduction that rises above a song supported by a slowed down and passionate chorus, just as the melancholy “Tomb Of Roses”, opened by a sad acoustic, flows into a metallic crescendo that climbs into a heavy doom song, capable of closely recalling Candlemass; inflections of Judas Priest instead permeate the heavier side throughout the album, with some exhilarating and fiercely metal-like outbursts: “Gilded Chambers” can be an example, but not too many minutes pass before a new guitar blast makes its appearance from around the corner.
These excellent episodes, however, coexist with songs that are certainly not bad, but much more normal, such as “Grief's Reverie”, which does its job but slips away with perhaps a little too much ease, or “Corpsebloom Garden” or, again, “Carrion King”, another piece with a fast start but with a chorus that is not so exciting in terms of melody, although the use of the growl to take the listener for a walk between excellent guitar intertwining and slowdowns certainly does not disfigure the overall result.

Perhaps 'the' long, epic, battle song is missing, which had instead appeared in previous albums, often at the end of the work, significantly raising the quality level. The closing here is instead entrusted to the five full minutes of “Benediction Tones”, certainly dignified, musically compelling thanks also to the best passage of the entire album, but we would have liked to dream a little more, wandering between the notes and the construction of long and sylvan songs as had happened with “From Ruin”, the peak of the album “Desolation” for example, with writing that wandered and got lost throughout its nine and a half minutes of metallic poetry, now rocky, now nostalgic.
The third test by Nuclear Blast therefore leaves us once again vaguely dumbfounded: the impression is that the band has momentarily set aside their magical touch, stabilizing on this type of standard (however of a good level), with all due respect to those who dreamed of slightly more marked epic doom digressions.