Live Review: Khemmis – Birmingham

Live Review: Khemmis – The Flapper, Birmingham

13th October 2026
Support: Celestial Sanctuary
Words: Matt Noble
Photos: Tim Finch

Opening the show are crushing death metallers Celestial Sanctuary, who command a respectable turnout at eight on a Tuesday night in Birmingham. With guttural vocals, evil lead guitar lines, and grooves to scrunch your face up to, they waste no time in creating a hell of an atmosphere. It’s heavy, filthy and full of energy. Building anticipation for their upcoming album, due in January on Metal Blade, they throw a few unheard songs into the set that give the first hints at a wonderfully brutal new chapter for the band. Lead single ‘Lashed By Chain’ was only released in the week before the gig, and it seems like there’s even better still to come. However, their older tracks, such as the particularly well-received ‘Rid The Gormless’, still kick up a storm. 

As Celestial Sanctuary dominate the stage, interacting with the crowd and headbanging, their audience throw it back to them, moving around and raising their horns in all the right moments. They sound polished and professional, with disgusting guitar and bass tones backed by an impressively tight drum performance. But most importantly, the songs are creatively written and hold the crowd’s undivided attention throughout their 40 minute set. Not an easy act to follow!

The Flapper is fairly busy by the time Khemmis are warmly welcomed onstage for only their second UK show – and first in Birmingham – following their debut on these shores at Damnation a few years ago. The Denver doom metallers clearly have a growing cult following in the UK already, and with a few more trips across the pond, no-one would bet against them graduating to much larger stages in years to come. ‘Avernal’ kicks off their set with an impactful thrashy riff, getting the pulses racing before settling on a morose, melodic doom beat that a lot of the rest of the set matches in atmosphere. 

Phil Pendergast’s soaring, soulful clean singing carries the main melodies, though he’s a mean guitarist too, teaming up with Ben Hutcherson for some gorgeous dual guitar leads. Both rocking flying Vs, they really look the heavy metal part. As a duo, their versatility on their instruments is important, from intricate lead playing down to simply letting the weight of the power chords ring out. There is something in the way that Khemmis stack their chords that really gives a dense, rich harmonic flavour to the set. However, Ben also contributes extreme metal vocals to provide contrast and allow the band to occasionally go into more dissonant, sludgier territory. The flexibility of the dual vocal and guitar attack makes the ambitious, progressive songs that Khemmis craft possible. But of course, the watertight rhythm section can’t be forgotten about, keeping the flow and sense of refinement throughout the set. Drummer Zach Coleman is just as capable of blasting and D-beating as he is of handling the slower beats, a powerhouse behind the kit, while bassist David Small navigates each riff and fill with a thunderous tone.

Yet sometimes you can find bands with technical guitar parts, haunting melodies and generally on the slower end of the tempo scale that just… stand around. Not Khemmis. This is top quality heavy metal entertainment. They engage the crowd, demanding the reception that they deserve – not that they’d need to worry about it – and making sure we’ve all got our metal horns in the air. Main vocalist Phil even jumps in the crowd for a mosh while ripping the intro riff to ‘Three Gates’. He is an impassioned, wild presence at the front, throwing himself around the stage and clearly feeling every single note coming out of the speakers. He doesn’t forget to thank the attendees for coming out on a Tuesday, wryly pointing out that Stevie Wonder is on at the arena across the road on the same night. Doom should be this fun more often.

Playing songs from all eras of the band, including their self titled fifth record that came out in June, tonight’s a gift from the metal gods for their UK fans that don’t often have the chance to see them in the flesh. It’s entertaining, well presented, energetic heavy metal thunder. As the final notes of ‘A Conversation With Death’ fade away, you can’t help but feel their hour-long set wasn’t quite enough to fully scratch the itch. Long live Khemmis.

Photo credits: Tim Finch

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