KHEMMIS
“DOOMED HEAVY METAL”
E.P. Review by Piers Renfree

7.5/10

What-ho boys and girls, how are we all today in this lockdown? 

When you form your world-beating metal, punk, goth, grunge or hard rock bands please bear a thought for us reviewers and remember to make sure that your publicist supplies reviewers the basic information needed to aid us with completing our reviews for you. It helps us to know who is in your band, when you formed your band and your band’s discography. Providing the information with your releases helps us make sure we have our information correct and are not making mistakes from finding out information second hand and praying that it is correct. The less time we need to spend looking up information, the more time we have to review records.

Thus, the more records that we can review, the more that people get to learn about. The more records that people learn about, the more records that people might buy. This stands you in better stead for getting your music noticed – win, win, win.

Now then, who do we have today for our aural pleasures? Ah, here we have the latest E.P. from Khemmis, “Doomed Heavy Metal”.

Formed in 2012 and taking their band’s name from an ancient city in Egypt (now known as Akhmim), Khemmis hail from Denver, Colorado in the USA (which is known as the Mile High City and home to three time NFL Superbowl winning team, the Denver Broncos).

Currently comprising of Phil Pendergast (vocals and guitar), Ben Hutcherson (vocals and guitar), Daniel Beiers (bass guitar) & Zach Coleman (drums), the band have released three albums 2015’s “Absolution”, 2016’s “Hunted” and 2018’s “Desolation” as well as an E.P. 2013’s “Khemmis” prior to this year’s release.

Released via Nuclear Blast Records (with whom the band have been signed since July 2017, and the record label that they released their “Desolation” album on), “Doomed Heavy Metal” is available on CD, digital download and vinyl.

So girls and boys, I bet you’re wondering what the music is like. Well it starts with a cover of the DIO classic “Rainbow In The Dark” that is heavy – imagine a hippopotamus deciding that you are it’s bed for the night. It is also slowed down and works very well. 

The band don’t let up the heaviness, the riffs of the next two songs steamrollering over you. The band don’t just employ pulverisingly heavy riffs, but also melodic guitar harmonies, while the baritone vocals are clean. The musicians are no slouches, their music has time and tempo changes and there are solos that Tony Iommi and Glenn Tipton would be proud of. 

The final three songs are live recordings. These are the sound of Khemmis turning the brains of an appreciative audience to jelly. Here Phil Pendergast and Ben Hutcherson mix it up switching clean vocals with Death Metal guttural growling in the songs, showing us that vocally, the band are no one trick pony. 

In total, the six songs on “Doomed Heavy Metal” run for thirty-eight minutes and twenty-six seconds and you are not being short changed for one second of it. 

I award Khemmis a solid seven and a half points out of ten for this E.P. and you should do yourselves a favour and give them a listen. 

TRACKLIST

Rainbow In The Dark (Dio cover)
A Conversation With Death
Empty Throne
Bloodletting (live)
Three Gates (live)
The Bereaved (live)

https://www.facebook.com/khemmisdoom/

This review is the property of Piers Renfree and Metal Gods TV. It is strictly prohibited to copy any part of this review, unless you have all of the parties’ permission, or are the band/record label/PR company in question. Failure to adhere to these instructions will be considered as Plagiarism and you will be reported to the appropriate authorities.

---