As far as Khemmis are concerned, Deceiver almost didn’t happen. Stuck at home when the pandemic put an end to touring, the Denver doom dealers started doing some serious introspection. “I think we were all open to the idea that Khemmis just wasn’t an important part of our lives anymore when we were forced to contend with all these other things that were coming up for us,” guitarist/vocalist Phil Pendergast tells Apple Music. “When you’re forced to take a break from something and focus on your family and everything else in your life, a band that’s a huge time commitment seems less important.” On a personal level, Pendergast was struggling with depression and wondering if he had anything left to say artistically. “When you’re in a global pandemic and we’re confronting all this unrest around racial justice and women’s rights and the nature of capitalism and inequality, you wonder if the voice of a comfortably middle-class, straight white male is even worthwhile. The depression was also making me feel like I wasn’t capable. I realized that voice is what Deceiver really is.” Below, he discusses each track. “Avernal Gate” “We wanted the album to have a pretty boisterous opening, like one that would kind of knock people off of their expectations a bit. And we thought it was disarming to open the record with a clean intro and then go immediately into what’s essentially a Swedish death metal riff. But lyrically, it’s trying to lay the foundation for the rest of the album, invoking a sense of place and the desperation that the album taps into. The idea is that we’re opening the gate to hell that the title refers to, and it’s an invitation for us to go there together.” “House of Cadmus” “In the first track, we opened the pit to hell, and this song is the start of the real journey. You’ve fallen into the very bottom of the pit and you’re working your way back out. I think this is the darkest song on the record, and it just gets darker and more hopeless as it goes along. For me, it has to do with my family and the idea of an ancestral curse. It’s a very real thing that I’m ashamed of and terrified by, and I don’t want to go into it too much.” “Living Pyre” “This is one of the first songs that really came together riff-wise, the one where we felt like we were tapping into the creative spark of the band again. I similarly found the creative spark for what the album would be about lyrically, with the admission that ‘there’s nothing left to give.’ But what’s left to give is to admit your shortcomings and contend with your personal demons—to stare into the void and see what you can glean from that process.” “Shroud of Lethe” “I think these mythological stories, like the story about Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, are part of our DNA in a way. As I was writing the lyrics for the album, I was realizing that the arc of the story felt a bit like Dante’s descent in the Inferno. That kind of opened me up to the idea of wanting to play with some of this allegorical kind of mythological imagery, because the character of the tragic hero is relatable to the way I was expressing my feelings on the album. It’s someone who lets their perceived imperfections become their downfall.” “Obsidian Crown” “This was probably the most difficult song to put together, for some reason. I literally spent an entire day sitting in a closet trying to come up with ideas for this song and kept hitting a wall. One of the things I struggle with most is that I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and I’m really hard on myself when I can’t achieve what I’m going for. So, the song ended up being about learning to have more compassion for yourself. The expectation that you’re always going to crush it every time you do something is like a neurotoxin.” “The Astral Road” “This track is similar in spirit to the first song. It’s like we’ve worked our way through these various circles of hell and we’re approaching the exit, so we’re able to survey our surroundings again. Again, there’s a sense of place—but with a reflection on the lessons learned. What I realized as I was working through all these issues on this album is that I needed to be a little bit more loving toward who I am. The other thing I realized is that a lot of collective problems we have come down to this lack of humanity that drives everything that’s happening today. Maybe some of these issues could be resolved to some degree if we’re all willing to admit we’re wrong, listen to each other, and try to find common ground again.”