Even though I've heard of SPIRITUS MORTIS in the past, this is the first time I come across them. And how couldn't I hear that name before since, we are talking for the oldest doom Metal band from Finland!?!

Well, SPIRITUS MORTIS was born in 1987 by the Maijala brothers under the name RIGOR MORTIS, but they changed it because another band from the U.S.A. had that name too. Tomi Murtomaki came a few years later to stand behind the microphone, since Teemu wanted to concentrate on his bass. Tomi left the band after the anniversary 20 years of SM tour, due to motivational problems. Through this years, they have released more than half a dozen of demos, but only two splits, one single and  The God Behind The God is just their third full release!

When I started listening to the album, I was a bit confused. The Man Of Steel is far from being called a Doom Metal track. You could say that it sounds mostly like an epic Metal song. To tell you the truth, I didn't like it and I was, once again, ready to take my shovel out of its case. Fortunately for my ears and this review, things got better with Death Bride, a song based on The Mysteries (1960), a prose poem by Miguel Serrano and one of my favorites of the album. It smells doom from miles away, with its heavy starting riff and the voice of Sami Hynninen (aka Albert Witchfinder, ex - REVEREND BIZARRE) screaming, whispering or singing with his distinctive voice. The other compositions are following the typical doom Metal style, something not bad in general but I wanted to listen to something more, since I think they can make that step. And I'm more sure about this when I listened to the Danzig-like Heavy Drinker that is a good song.

Overall The God Behind The God is a nice Doom Metal album, but not something extraordinary. Without the intention to say anything bad about the work of the other four guys, Sami's voice makes the difference in this album. Nice ideas, one or two nice songs, but I think they can do even better. Nevertheless I hope that doomsters that are not familiar with SPIRITUS MORTIS will get to know them with this album.