KHEMMIS – Doomed Heavy Metal (EP Review)

Some Background:

Khemmis are a new name to me and are pretty new to their label Nuclear Blast. This 4 piece outfit are from Denver Colorado and formed back in 2012. They have 3 albums out and now they are releasing an EP called Doomed Heavy Metal which drops April 17. They are categorized as “doom” metal but on their website they have a description of “progressive and soulful heavy metal” which to be honest isn’t too far off the mark. This longish EP is a combination of some covers, old singles hard to find and 3 rare live recordings. The 3 live tracks are all over 7 minutes long so you can see how they are kind of “prog”.

A Brave Choice Of Cover?:

To get the first track out of the way, the elephant in the room, the track that will divide folks is their cover of Ronnie James Dio’s song “Rainbow In The Dark”. First thing to say is that vocally it does not match the great man himself, but to be honest even Corey Taylor from Slipknot didn’t manage that on the Dio tribute album This Is Your Life so there is no shame there. Controversially there are no keyboards on it either. Personally I rather like the way the guitar fills in on this version, it gives it a darker and heavier edge.

To me they do enough with it to make it their own yet still play respect to Dio. It is, of course, a brilliant song and I feel that this is a strong version. As someone who got into metal courtesy of Rainbow Rising and cried like a bairn when Dio died, I like it. Don’t think I say much more than that.

2 More Studio Rareties:

So onto the next couple of tracks. First up is “A Conversation With Death” which is a cover of a piece known as “Oh Death” possibly originally done by Free Baptist church minister Lloyd Chandler (there are disputes about the truth of that though) in the 1920s. The original is acapella and mournful as hell. This version starts with voices only but turns into a heavy doom piece with a rather tasty guitar solo. It works well in the doom genre although I do not imagine anything will quite match the sparseness of the original. Apparently this track was released on a split single a few years ago with Spirit Adrift back in 2017 and this is the first time it is widely available.

Next up “Empty Throne” is the most commercial song. I would say that I felt it was a tad 1990s alternative in vibe and if released then would probably have got airplay. Again this track released a few years ago on a flexi disc for a magazine. So this is the first time many fans are able to own a copy of it. There is some lovely dirty sounding fuzzy bass, especially at the start and which also shines through underpinning the guitar solo. On this the drum fills are quite noticeable and add plenty flavour to the track. So I give a thumbs up for all 3 studio obscurities. What about the live stuff?

The Live Stuff:

All 3 songs have plenty going on with little influences both doom-laden as well as heavy metal, hard rock with a bit of Celtic feel and even Eastern/Oriental. The vocals are very clear for live recordings (no idea if they are enhanced or whether they are always so good live) with even the growls from Ben coming through well. The main singer Phil has a lovely resonance to his voice and it comes over nicely.

The way they are put on the album is newest track first then heading back through the 3 previously released albums. “Bloodletting” is from their 2018 album Desolation and is the most commercial/accessible having a more polished feel about it. The song opens very melodically and heads into Thin Lizzy territory due to some of the guitar harmonies and turns into an Oriental vibe near the end (think Marty Friedman’s album Scenes). It also has the fastest guitar solo on any of the songs here. There are very few growled vocals apart from right near the end.

“Three Gates” is noticeably heavier and with the use of 2 vocals reminded me a little of Opeth. There is a call, respond part in the song whilst utilizes the 2 styles of singing rather well. This has some 1980s metal riffing going on in parts and the guitar harmonies are sublime. The melody is slightly reminiscent of something from the 1970s but I can’t quite work it out. Despite all that the track is still “doom” in the main.

Last up from 2015’s album Absolution comes “The Bereaved” the longest of all the songs at over 9 minutes. The first 3 of those build up rather seductively. Single guitar gently playing, touches of cymbals leading to drum beats. The other guitar coming in with a very atmospheric sound. As that heavies up we hear some fine guitar soloing. All this before a word is sung! There is a hypnotic vibe about this, it slowly pulls you in and along. Around the 6 minute mark, there is a well-worked change of tempo where their inner Iron Maiden comes out, all galloping guitars and bass. Of course that twists around when it slows down again into a more Black Sabbath groove. All very tasty.

Conclusion? Thumbs Up All Round:

So this mini-album (as it really is in reality), is a release which the band says on their web site is their attempt at doing a Fandango like ZZ Top (who they remark that they are massive fans of) by combining rarer studio tracks and some unreleased live tracks. As such I can say it works. I enjoyed this taste of a new band for me. So much so I am heading back to check out their back catalogue. If that is what they were hoping then guys, well done, the job’s a good un!

Purchase EP: Amazon USA / Amazon UK

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