Khemmis is a doomed heavy metal band from Denver, Colorado. Anticipation was high in 2016 for the release of Hunted, Khemmis' sophomore album and follow up to the acclaimed debut, Absolution. Rather than the all too common sophomore slump, Khemmis raised the stakes and blew everyone away with their rapidly progressing songwriting and production quality, culminating in Hunted being named Album Of The Year for 2016 by Decibel Magazine.
After wrapping up the Decibel Magazine Tour with Enslaved, Wolves In The Throne Room and Myrkur, the excitement for Khemmis’s third album, Desolation, is palpable across the metal spectrum. Fortunately, when you hail from a place known as the Mile High City lofty expectations come with the territory and the band has created what will come to be known as the definitive Khemmis classic.
From the stadium-sized opening notes of ‘Bloodletting,’ it is immediately evident that Khemmis are again putting distance between themselves and their earlier influences to inform a sound that is singularly their own. ‘Isolation’, recently aired live on the Decibel Tour, is the album’s lead single and most immediate track, with the classic metal melodies the band have become revered for shining throughout.
On epic closer ’From Ruin’ and throughout the entirety of the album, the lead vocals and melodies of Phil Pendergast are the clearest, most powerful and best arranged to date. Working for the third time with Dave Otero at Flatline Audio in Denver, the band and producer now have the familiarity to arrive at the perfect symbiosis of songwriting, arrangement, and production value.
While Khemmis are undeniably influenced by Doom and Classic Metal, to tag them with those labels doesn’t do justice to what’s accomplished on Desolation, a perfect representation of modern Heavy Metal in 2018 that integrates the past in a way only possible in the present. Desolation is not just the best Khemmis record to date, but a testament to the quality of which Heavy Metal is still capable.
