Coloradan doomed heavy metal outfit Khemmis are readying the release of one of 2021’s most anticipated metal albums, Deceiver, which is set for a November 19th release through Nuclear Blast. To further stoke excitement, the band has unveiled an animated video by acclaimed Romanian visual artist Costin Chioreanu (Carcass, At the Gates) for their profound new single House of Cadmus. You can watch the video below!

Vocalist/guitarist Phil Pendergast says of the new song: “House of Cadmus represents the lowest emotional point on Deceiver. In it, we explore the seat of our deepest fears, the anchors that we drag behind ourselves for our entire lives. It is also maybe the most important song for me, personally, in our entire catalogue. With it, I cut away the chains that have long held me captive and offer an invitation for everyone who hears it to do the same.

We are all weighed down by some aspect of our lives: addiction, abuse, mental illness, fear, regret, and shame, to name a few. These traumas distort our views of ourselves, of each other, and of the world around us. But these are merely stories we tell ourselves, and no matter how all-encompassing they may feel, these stories cannot define us.”

Deceiver Tracklisting:

Avernal Gate
House of Cadmus
Living Pyre
Shroud of Lethe
Obsidian Crown
The Astral Road

Restlessly awakening from the depths of a feverish slumber, doomed heavy metal masters Khemmis return to reveal their fourth full length studio album, Deceiver. Six tracks of desolate, soul-awakening heaviness encapsulate a project that has been nearly three years in the making. With a title that reflects the internal struggles that many of us battle in our daily lives, Deceiver is a ferociously honest and appetisingly raw piece of musical artistry.

While the lyrical themes of Deceiver, sorrow, pain, longing for hope, will no doubt be familiar to long-time fans, these six songs display a broader collection of musical influences than on any other Khemmis record to date. “It being our fourth album, especially after the transition between the last two albums, it felt really freeing. We felt that we could really do anything on this record,” explains drummer Zach Coleman. “There’s a lot here that we’ve never done before,” adds Pendergast. “In some areas it gets darkly psychedelic. I think we found a cool way to mutate things using transitions that feel really natural. There is a subtle symmetry between the first and last songs which is one of the things that makes listening to the full album a satisfying holistic experience. It builds from almost nothing, becomes very dark, and then you slowly crawl out of that lowest circle of hell.”

Khemmis’ Deceiver is a beautiful, musically ambitious journey from beginning to end drenched in impassioned melody and complex, unrestrained variations of sonic savagery adorned with chilling, intensely tragic cover art by frequent collaborator Sam Turner.

KHEMMIS is:
Ben Hutcherson (Guitar & Vocals)
Phil Pendergast (Vocals & Guitar)
Zach Coleman (Drums)