Khemmis (Self-Titled Fifth Album)
Khemmis · Doom Metal / Heavy Metal
Reviewed 2026-06-14
The Roast
“Oh, how courageous of you, Khemmis. Five albums deep and you finally looked each other in the eyes and said, "What should we call this one?" and collectively shrugged. A self-titled record on album number five is either a profound artistic rebirth or a band standing in the studio parking lot saying, "We ran out of ideas before we even got to the title page." You spent five years cooking up a follow-up to Deceiver, dragged a new bassist named David Small into your ritual circle, and the best branding move you could summon was your own name. Bold. Lazy. Possibly both.\n\nNow, to your credit, the "ritual of heavy metal" framing is genuinely clever on paper. Opening with "Invocation of the Dreamer" and closing with "Benediction Tones" gives the eight-track runtime a satisfying ceremonial arc, like you actually planned this thing instead of just hoping the tracklist sorted itself out. But Ben Hutcherson going on record to say the goal was a "tight, high-energy album" that embodied "the joy of heavy metal" is doing a lot of PR heavy lifting for a doom metal band. Joy? In doom? You are playing a genre that invented the funeral march and you want joy? Sir, your amp settings are writing a different memo entirely.\n\nRecorded again at Flatline Audio with Dave Otero in Westminster, Colorado, this album is comfortable in the most suspicious way possible. Same studio, same state, same producer, new bassist, same result: critics calling it you at your "truest and most energized form." Which is a lovely compliment wrapped around a quiet accusation that the previous four records were you at your least honest and most tired. The "Forsake the Light" European tour name is genuinely the most metal thing about this entire release cycle, and it is a tour announcement, not even a song title. You let the logistics department out-metal the music department. That is a receipts situation.”
Sally's not done with you yet.
Drop a URL, screenshot, or file and Sally will give you the honest truth.
The Bright Side
Here is the thing though: the ritual concept actually holds. Opening with "Invocation of the Dreamer" and landing on "Benediction Tones" is a structural choice that respects the listener enough to give them a beginning and an ending, a full ceremony rather than just a playlist. Bringing in David Small as a new bassist without disrupting the band's identity suggests genuine musical confidence, not fragility. And "Beneath the Scythe" as a pre-release single title is exactly the kind of portentous, scythe-adjacent doom poetry that reminds you why Khemmis exists in the first place. Christopher Remmers handling the artwork keeps the visual language consistent and considered. This is a band that clearly loves what they do, and that love, annoyingly, comes through.
Hardest Sneer
“You named your fifth album after yourself, which is either a masterclass in confidence or proof that the ritual consumed the part of your brain responsible for titles.”
Think your work can survive this?
Drop a URL, screenshot, or file and Sally will give you the honest truth.
Issues (4)
The Self-Title Cop-Out
Receipt
This is Khemmis's FIFTH studio album. Self-titled debuts are a tradition. Self-titled fifth albums are a white flag with a pentagram on it. Nuclear Blast's own announcement frames it as a 'follow-up to their 2021 album Deceiver,' a record with a perfectly evocative one-word title. Going from 'Deceiver' to literally just 'Khemmis' is a creative regression dressed up as a statement.
Fix
If the album is genuinely a ritual and a rebirth, lean into the ceremony. A title like 'The Rite' or 'Invocation' drawn directly from your own track listing would have communicated the same rebirth narrative without making it look like you forgot to finish the packaging.
Joy in a Doom Band: Investigate
Receipt
Hutcherson stated the goal was writing a 'tight, high-energy album' that 'embodied the joy of heavy metal.' Khemmis plays doom metal. The genre's entire emotional palette is grief, dread, and the slow collapse of everything. Promising 'joy' from a band whose tour is literally called 'Forsake the Light' is a brand identity crisis wearing a leather jacket.
Fix
Own the tension instead of resolving it in press quotes. 'We wanted to capture the catharsis and power of doom' tells a more honest story than 'joy,' and it does not accidentally make your fanbase wonder if you have gone soft.
Same Studio, Fifth Time: Comfort Zone Alert
Receipt
Flatline Audio with Dave Otero in Westminster, Colorado has now produced multiple Khemmis records. Early critics are calling this album Khemmis 'in their truest and most energized form,' which implies the previous records produced in the same room were somehow less true and less energized. If your own comfort zone was quietly limiting you for years, that is a problem your producer should have flagged, not critics on album five.
Fix
A single session outside Flatline Audio, even a writing retreat or a guest collaboration tracked elsewhere, would inject genuine sonic disruption into the next cycle. Familiarity is the enemy of reinvention, and you cannot call something a rebirth if it was born in the exact same hospital.
Eight Tracks and No Announced Runtime: Suspicious Ambiguity
Receipt
The Nuclear Blast announcement confirms eight tracks and a June 12, 2026 release date but provides no total runtime. For a doom metal record where track length is a core part of the experience, leaving fans to guess whether they are getting 38 minutes of tight heavy metal or 74 minutes of ritual endurance is a marketing gap that creates the wrong kind of mystery.
Fix
Lead with the runtime in your press materials. Doom fans do not fear long albums, they celebrate them. If this record runs long, that is a feature, not a spoiler. If it runs short, own the 'tight' angle Hutcherson already telegraphed and make it a selling point.