Spiritus Mortis – The God Behind the God

Releasedate: 13-05-2009; Label: Firebox Records
By: Sabine van Gameren

The traditional doom metal band Spiritus Mortis from Finland released their third album “The God Behind God”.

The band god announced as Finland’s oldest doom metal band, which surely brings up a lot of expectations. Seeing their discography, Finland was not ready for their music in the past, as they have a long list with demo’s before it actually came to an full length album release. When it comes to the release of “The God Behind God” I firstly stumbled upon the title. I’m not too impressed when people always search things behind something, as a wise men learned me: “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”. A little more faith may do great for self conscience. And that is exactly what I missed in this album. It surely has the element that you cannot miss out on at a decent doom album but it does not have balls. Where is the strenght, where is the conviction? Riffs try to catch you with sharp edges but they aren’t memorable. Drums just are there to back it up instead of being a great add to the doom atmosphere. Vocals are various, not too stereotype for doom which speaks positive for the band as the rest of their sound did not completely convince me.

The album is not complete crap, but it is not a diamond either. This album does not stick out above the average and that is not only because the expectation were set high, but just because this isn’t the new big thing in doom.

Line Up:
Sami Hynninen – Vocals
Jussi Maijala – Guitar
Kari Lavila – Guitar
Teemu Maijala – Bass
Jarkko Seppälä – Drums

Links:
Spiritus Mortis MySpace
Spiritus Mortis Official