Khemmis – Khemmis (Nuclear Blast) [Matt Bladen]In the music world self titled albums are either a birth or a rebirth of a band, so when Khemmis announced that their fifth album would carry their band name I braced myself for these heavy riff veterans to embrace K-Pop with their new record but thankfully they haven’t.
What the Colorado four piece have done though is define what Khemmis is, the band themselves say that they have “rediscovered something unexpected and powerful–the joy of making heavy music together.”
So
Khemmis by Khemmis is an album inspired by the band Khemmis, the four individuals that make the music here and how these friendships have endured the trials, tribulations and the music industry at large, driven by the love of making music together.
Though this version of the band is not the same as the one that started out, though 3/4 are as vocalist/guitarists Ben Hutcherson and Phil Pendergast alongside drummer Zach Coleman are still the driving force of Khemmis with only bassist David Small being a new addition, although he joined officially in 2022 and brings a meaty, bottom end to this new music.
Despite being a key part of the Denver metal community, two members now live in different states but reconvening to record this record has inspired them to create the most expressive music of their career. Locked in an in a flow state the separation was a benefit to the process as they really gelled together in the studio to pump out riffs like it was 2012 all over again.
So this self titled album is something of a return, the return of fun, it’s their heavy metal album, the worship of the classic sound more prominent than on any previous releases, it’s what the kids call Epic Metal, doom merged with traditional sounds as rock solid rhythm section gallops and grooves ready for the twin axe attack to do it’s thing on tracks such as
Tomb Of Roses.
With influences from Manilla Road, Cirith Ungol, Candlemass as well as Mastodon, Baroness and The Sword, Khemmis leaning into anthemic epic metal, but there are still homages to all the styles of heavy metal from death growls on the Opeth-like
Corpsebloom Garden, prog/classical/thrash on
Invocation Of The Dreamer, some sludge riffs on the psychedelic
Beneath The Scythe and old school death doom comes on
Carrion King.
To truly finish off the trifecta, this concept album needed a song called
Khemmis, but as it stands
Khemmis by Khemmis, is a brilliant record from a band who have fallen in love with making heavy metal all over again.
9/10Lex Legion – Lex Legion (MNRK) [Matt Bladen]It’s funny that way people look at things. I’m sure everyone else’s will be absolutely enamoured that Lex Legion contains four-fifths of the King Diamond line up from the late 80’s.
Formed by guitarist Pete Blakk, he’s recruited bassist Hal Patino, guitarist Andy La Rocque (ex Death) and drummer Mikkey Dee (Motorhead/Scorpions) to create a band heavily inspired by the King/Mercyful Fate/Judas Priest and any heavy rock band where the guitars are razor sharp, the rhythm section is let loose and the vocals shriek high enough to break glass.
It’s in the latter that I get excited about this record as they’ve brought in Nils K. Rue of Pagan’s Mind to take the mic, in an inspired step as he has the same ear piercing power as the King himself but with a broader tone too. Pagan’s Mind have long been a favourite with me so, the majority will love the idea of these four instrumentalists making music together again, I’m excited by hearing Rue belt out some classic metal.
It’s an album written in between the various other projects the members are part of, an album of leisure with an almost 25 year gestation period, the fact that most of these performers have more than forty years of experience behind them only means that this debut record is free of ego and of any reservations.
They’re not trying to deliver box office smashes or platinum selling records, just honest, straightforward heavy metal with big choruses and plenty of fist-in-the-air riffs. For instance
Gypsy Tears will have you thinking of what would happen if King Diamond and Uriah Heep wrote a song together while opener
Sleep Eternally just sets the right tone for the whole record/band a metallic stormer with big chorus.
From here it’s non-stop ride through leather clad heavy metal, the gallops of Patino controlling the changes of pace, to bring some progressive tones. The interplay between La Rocque and Blakk as crisp and harmonious as it was all those years ago, be it the distorted horror-tinged riffs of
(I Am) The Resurrected or the countless solo sections.
Dee still hits with more force and ferocity than drummers more than half his age, even when they settle into the mid-pace chugs on
When The Stars Align he’s all double kicks while Rue’s vocals are just right for the muscular rocking of
Lost Inside and theatrical moments such as
Saviours.
Lex Legion bring the
Heavy Metal Thunder, have their
Balls To The Wall, they’re
Screaming For Vengeance and they’re here to
Welcome Home heavy metal with their debut album. So if you’re savvy enough to know these, thinly veiled song titles you’ll love this album.
8/10Defiled – Altered State (Season Of Mist) [Mark Young] There are difficult reviews, those that should on paper be right up your street in terms of the core music you listen to. I’m not too shallow to admit that sitting down with a chunk of death metal is probably more preferable to shoe gaze or maybe tech metal. I’m comfortable with it and I still get excited by releases by bands new and old.
Defiled unfortunately fall into the either/or position with their latest opus, Altered State. There are positives and negatives here, I think that my problem is that it feels like it is the same song repeated 14 times. I know that bands are often set in a particular style of how they go about writing and recording new material, which can sometimes work against them.
I’d never come across them prior to this and reading their accompanying press it promised that it would satisfy a lot of things I associate with this genre. My main takeaway was that it suggested something new, which I found to be not quite correct. The songs come and go with varying degrees of speed and intensity without leaving any real mark on you.
Repeated listens which often unlock something you miss revealed nothing more for me, other than its death metal. Sitting down to write this I realised that I had more negative things to say, which serve no purpose other than to make me look witty and I hate that in reviews. Simply put it’s a dull album.
There are jagged shards present, like I said there are positives but they are swallowed by an overwhelming cloak of grey. The opener starts like you would hope, Dazed In Blindness has a frenzy to it but it feels off, like they have purposefully leaned into making it off-centre. Its feeling that continues right through, because you have the music side flying along but the vocal delivery doesn’t match it. Its harsh which is fine in itself but it’s just delivered in one way that flattens the songs.
In any respect, I want to move on from taking shots at them because for someone this will be a cracker. The fact it doesn’t work for me shouldn’t put anyone else off from trying it. Obsession, as an example does a good job of being heavy, as does Genocidal Stage but there is little variance between them. Still, there are some good moments here, it’s just a bit of chore to sit through the 14 tracks to discover where those moments are. 6/10
Fleshcrawl – Epitome Of Carnage (Reigning Phoenix Music) [Mark Young]
And so onto the second album of the weekend, with Fleshcrawl, the veterans who bring you their latest full length release. I think that when a band suggests that this is going to be old school brutality or its going to do this or do that, it feels like they are setting a bar too high before they start. So, let me help you make a decision here using the Death Metal Ready Reckoner:
Do you like Death Metal – yes or no.
If its yes, please proceed and take a seat. If its no, then maybe you will find something in the easy listening section. Fleshcrawl basically promise an album of uncompromising, violent metal. Epitome Of Carnage should at least give you some kind of clue as to what they are all about and where their heads were at during the making of this record.
Starting with the negatives first so we can get them out of the way, as an album it has one way of doing things, and it hopes that you are onboard with them doing things this way. All of the core ingredients are here – harsh vocals, speedy riffing, double bass doing that machine gun thing, everything that you associate with this genre of music.
They make good on that promise and there are definitely no lies detected from them with this, it’s just that I press play with Blood Dominion kicking things off and, I look again its Committed To Suffer with no apparent breaks in between. My point is that in an effort to make this as brutal, as old school and feel free to add your own labels here, its punched them into a corner.
There is nothing ostensibly wrong with any of the songs on here as I’ve said above, they do what they need to do and do what you expect them to. Its just that there is very little difference on display here. I’m of the opinion that they could have trimmed a couple of songs from this too without affecting the way it lands.
It all goes back to what you want from your death metal, or extreme metal in general. If its just pummelling brutality, then pitch your tent here. If you are looking for something more than that, you may be disappointed with it because there is nothing more here. It exists just to be heavy, that’s it. 6/10
