How Khemmis Conquered a Decade of Doom

Khemmis is synonymous with modern doom metal at this point, backed by a consistent catalog of harmonious heavy hitters chock-full of those signature guitar harmonies and bone-rattling beats.

But when the then-unknown Denver band released its debut, Absolution, in 2015, no one could have predicted the rosy reception it would receive, particularly those who were responsible for writing it.

We caught up with the hometown riff-and-roll kings to revisit the last decade of doom and discuss what went into that inaugural game-changing LP, as well as what’s next, as the band prepares for its Absolution ten-year anniversary show on Saturday, December 20, at the Gothic Theatre.

Vocalist-guitarist Ben Hutcherson, who formed Khemmis in 2012 while he and co-guitarist-vocalist Phil Pendergast were both sociology Ph.D. students at the University of Colorado Boulder, talks about how he’d recently been tabbing out guitar parts for the song “Burden of Sin,” a Khemmis deep cut from the first album that the quartet’s only performed twice before. Revisiting it made him realize he’s come a long way as a player since those early days.  

“I had this memory of recording that solo, and I got so frustrated because the opening lick of that solo was the hardest thing I could do on the guitar at that point,” Hutcherson, 40, recalls. “I just picked it out in, like, fifteen seconds. It’s been a while, so it’s nice to say that I have improved in every facet as a musician. It makes me appreciate those kinds of moments.”

Pendergast, 36, thanks his bandmate for taking care of all the tablature.

“I don’t really ever listen to our records after we put them out because any songs that we’re playing, I just remember how to play it or figure it out, so it’s been fun to revisit the record for me,” he says, likening it to looking back at an old high-school yearbook photo. “It’s both embarrassing and inspiring at the same time. It’s cool to look back at something like this that did so much for us and feel a sense of pride. But also excitement to do it even better, potentially, live. We got a chance to update it, to some degree.”

“Some of these songs we literally haven’t played in years and years and years, so we got to remember how they go first,” quips Hutcherson, a former CU Boulder sociology instructor.

Clocking in at just under 42 minutes, the six-song Absolution, featuring such stalwart songs as “The Bereaved” and “Serpentine,” broadened what doom could be, garnering praise throughout the underground almost immediately, particularly after Decibel magazine placed the release at No. 9 on its Top 40 Albums of 2015 year-end list, much to the surprise of the Khemmis crew.

Albert Mudrian, the Decibel editor-in-chief, “was in our corner from the beginning and spotlighting it a little bit with Decibel. That felt unique,” says drummer Zach Coleman, 39, who many may know as the former head brewer of TRVE Brewing. He also mans the kit for local black-metal occultists Black Curse. “We had some people in the industry championing us. That was completely unexpected for any of us. I didn’t really have any expectation for the record, so that was a big surprise.”

“Yeah, that was a big deal for us,” Pendergast adds. “I don’t think any of us ever would have thought that anyone would listen to the record, really. We just made it because we wanted to. I think that’s what’s special about it. It’s both us making a record for ourselves in the purest sense, and there’s a lot of really personal investment in it, and also it’s us just having fun, and the purest version of that.”

All of a sudden, Khemmis found itself a flagbearer of the 2010s doom resurgence, alongside such national acts as Pallbearer out of Arkansas, Virginia’s Windhand and Spirit Adrift, hailing from Arizona. And it has since established itself as a monolithic mainstay, following critically acclaimed sophomore follow-up Hunted, which landed at No. 11 on Rolling Stone’s twenty best metal albums of 2016 roundup (it took the top Decibel spot that year, too) and allowed the group to sign with Nuclear Blast, the label responsible for releasing the last two Khemmis records, Desolation (2018) and Deceiver (2021).

But none of that would have happened if Absolution, which included former bassist Daniel Beiers, didn’t strike the right chord, or chords, at precisely the right time. For context, it was a perfect storm following the “rethrash” era of years prior, during a moment when metal was looking for that next big thing. And Khemmis, this Colorado band with only a 2013 self-titled EP to its name before then, unknowingly obliged.  

“I don’t think it would have that effect for other people, and I don’t think it would have affected us the way that it did if we had gone in with any sort of expectation of, ‘Oh, we’ve landed on something here. We’re doing something that nobody sees coming,’” Hutcherson shares, while crediting the burgeoning local scene — in which peer alt-doom acts such as Primitive Man and In the Company of Serpents were coming up, too — for being a fertile proving ground.

“We were literally just following the guideline that we still follow to this day, which is when we’re writing music, are we writing something that we want to listen to? If yes, then keep going. If no, then change it,” he continues. “The beautiful coincidence is what we wanted to listen to seemed to and continues to resonate with so many people.”

Whether the Mile High musicians realized it or not, what Khemmis created on Absolution, recorded with legendary local producer Dave Otero (Cephalic Carnage, Cattle Decapitation), reinvigorated the subgenre and brought it to a new generation of heshers. This melding of Saint Vitus-style stoner grooves, reinterpreted with a classic heavy metal twin attack à la Iron Maiden, and the interplay of clean and harsh vocals, switching seamlessly between Pendergast’s epic highs to Hutcherson’s brutal lows, all wrapped up in Heavy Metal aesthetics, hadn’t before been executed with such melody and malice, giving Khemmis its unique sound and trademark style.

Hutcherson points to a late-night jam session that, looking back, included early licks of what would eventually find their way into “The Bereaved” as the genesis of it all.

“That was the song when Khemmis was born,” he says. “Phil and I jammed together in the basement of Black in Bluhm. We set out way too many amplifiers; it was just the two of us, we turned up way too loud and we drank a case of beer. I remember through the haze of all that Coors Banquet, when we started noodling around and working out harmonies for stuff, some of it turned into ‘The Bereaved,’ but most of it was like, ‘What are you playing? Oh, yeah, that’s sick. Let’s drink a beer.’ That is such an integral moment in the evolution of the band.”

“I remember really distinctly we thought of it as sounding like In Flames or At the Gates,” Pendergast recalls, “but nobody else probably would have heard it that way.”

The foundation had been set, however, and the guitar consonance, particularly the doubled-up, chord-based riffs that Khemmis started employing on Absolution, serves a very important purpose.

“The integration of guitar harmony is always about amplifying the emotion,” Hutcherson explains. “If it’s going to feel triumphant, it’s going to feel ten times as triumphant when you bring that second guitar in. If it’s heartbreaking, then it’s going to destroy you when you’ve got that harmony line coming in.”

His longtime bandmates agree.

“This idea of harmony and melody taking precedence over anything else,” Pendergast says, “is the core of what makes Khemmis Khemmis.”

“The harmonies ultimately are there to serve the emotion of the song,” Coleman adds, “and I think that’s maybe the Khemmis formula.”

The three laugh now at how green they were back then, like how they didn’t have any Absolution demos or click tracks ready before stepping into the studio, and some songs had to be buttoned up or rearranged on the fly. But it ultimately culminated in a more authentic and, in certain moments, spontaneous record.

“I love how that lack of foresight results in some real gems at times. To this day, I still feel like the solo I play at the beginning of ‘The Bereaved’ is the best solo that I have ever had,” says Pendergast, currently an assistant sociology professor at Western Washington University. “And I haven’t ever been able to play it better than I played it on the record. I’m always like, ‘God dammit, why does that have to be the first guitar solo that I ever played?’ But I love it. It wouldn’t have turned out the same if I was thinking about it as much. I just let it rip and that was what happened, and it got captured in this moment in time. That shit’s cool.”

Naturally, as the band has matured and settled into its own recording routine, shit’s not necessarily like that anymore. For example, Khemmis is wrapping up a yet-to-be-announced album, again with Otero at his Flatline Audio studio. And while there are still remnants from the Absolution days musically and emotionally, it’s much more intentional and focused.

“I see the two as spiritually linked a little bit,” Pendergast says. “But we’re driving a doom-metal Ferrari now, instead of a doom-metal El Camino.”

To be fair, both are badass in their own right. Khemmis — which currently includes bassist Dave Small, who holds down the same spot in Hutcherson’s death-sludge project, Glacial Tomb — has also teased that an unreleased new song will be part of the anniversary celebration.

“If people want to be in a video for a new song off the upcoming Khemmis record,” Hutcherson says, “they should definitely be at the show and be ready to headbang and mosh and act a fool.”

While the future looks heavy, it’s still a trip to think that Absolution, that first proper Khemmis offering, is ten this year.

“The sentiment that it’s hard to believe it’s been ten years definitely rings true, because the older you get, the faster time goes by. We’re middle-aged now. That’s a weird feeling,” Hutcherson says.

“When we started this band, we were just a bunch of no-good punks drinking beer in the basement of Black in Bluhm Studio,” he concludes. “Fast forward all these years later, and here we are.”

Khemmis, with Of Feather and Bone and Hashtronaut, 7 p.m. Saturday, December 20, Gothic Theatre, 3263 South Broadway. Tickets are $43.