Spiritus Mortis - Spiritus Mortis
Rage Of Achilles - ILIAD048 - 2004
By Philip Whitehouse
Before I get on with the review, see if you can get your head round this - Finnish traditional doomsters Spiritus Mortis formed in around 1987. This is their debut album. In case anyone has been in a coma for some considerable length of time, the year is now 2004. These guys have been around for seventeen years. Which means I was only three when this band formed. And I now have their debut album at the age of 20! The mind boggles.
Anyone, on with the review. After seventeen years of struggles, demo recordings, line-up changes and, presumably, long periods of thinking 'why the hell are we bothering', Spiritus Mortis have landed a deal with fast-rising label Rage Of Achilles and rapidly released their first, honest-to-goat full-length CD. So, what does it sound like? Well, what we have here is generally slow-burning, thunderous, bottom-end heavy traditional doom metal in the vein of Sabbath and Trouble, cloaked in a tendency towards epic dynamism that hints occasionally to Solitude Aeturnus and sprinkled liberally with a dosage of NWOBHM melody and energy, both in the lead guitar work and in Vesa Lampi's Ronnie James Dio-meets-David Wayne vocal stylings. Seriously, if this guy had joined a NWOBHM band back in 87, the other members of Spiritus Mortis would still be in a pub covers band...
This isn't really doom in the 'lord help me, I'm a worthless pitysack, kill me now' vein, but more a thundering juggernauth of bass-centric heaviosity - you could pulverise boulders with some of these riffs, and occasionally one wonders if the drummer is weilding sticks or meat tenderisers, so forceful is the percussion. Check out the steamrolling groove of 'Forbidden Arts' if you want proof, or the unabashed Sabbath worship of 'Flames'. However, it's not all bludgeon, bludgeon, bludgeon - tracks like 'Mighty One' (a piano backed track with spoken word verse and Manowar-esque chorus) prove Spiritus Mortis are far more than one trick ponies.
8/10
Spiritus Mortis Official website
Rage Of Achilles website
Rage Of Achilles - ILIAD048 - 2004
By Philip Whitehouse
Before I get on with the review, see if you can get your head round this - Finnish traditional doomsters Spiritus Mortis formed in around 1987. This is their debut album. In case anyone has been in a coma for some considerable length of time, the year is now 2004. These guys have been around for seventeen years. Which means I was only three when this band formed. And I now have their debut album at the age of 20! The mind boggles.
Anyone, on with the review. After seventeen years of struggles, demo recordings, line-up changes and, presumably, long periods of thinking 'why the hell are we bothering', Spiritus Mortis have landed a deal with fast-rising label Rage Of Achilles and rapidly released their first, honest-to-goat full-length CD. So, what does it sound like? Well, what we have here is generally slow-burning, thunderous, bottom-end heavy traditional doom metal in the vein of Sabbath and Trouble, cloaked in a tendency towards epic dynamism that hints occasionally to Solitude Aeturnus and sprinkled liberally with a dosage of NWOBHM melody and energy, both in the lead guitar work and in Vesa Lampi's Ronnie James Dio-meets-David Wayne vocal stylings. Seriously, if this guy had joined a NWOBHM band back in 87, the other members of Spiritus Mortis would still be in a pub covers band...
This isn't really doom in the 'lord help me, I'm a worthless pitysack, kill me now' vein, but more a thundering juggernauth of bass-centric heaviosity - you could pulverise boulders with some of these riffs, and occasionally one wonders if the drummer is weilding sticks or meat tenderisers, so forceful is the percussion. Check out the steamrolling groove of 'Forbidden Arts' if you want proof, or the unabashed Sabbath worship of 'Flames'. However, it's not all bludgeon, bludgeon, bludgeon - tracks like 'Mighty One' (a piano backed track with spoken word verse and Manowar-esque chorus) prove Spiritus Mortis are far more than one trick ponies.
8/10
Spiritus Mortis Official website
Rage Of Achilles website
