Woods of Belial - Deimos XIII (2003)^{Release ID: 34464}

Woods of Belial was created by the Sorvali brothers Henri and Ville, members of Finnish Pagan black metal band Moonsorrow. Adopting the stage names Blood and Wohi, they took on a darker, more experimental sound, industrial black-doom. They already made two demos before this, Thy Unholy Pentagram and Baxabaxaxaxaxabaxaxaxaxa! 666 Yndstr Draconis, both in the late 90s. In 2002, the band began making a 3rd demo, then Firebox Records offered a deal to promote it as a full album...

Deimos XIII is, similarly to Green Carnation's Leaves of Yesteryear, a 5-track album that includes two extras. 5 tracks in 50 minutes, wow! They do their industrial black-doom sound pretty well. Although the old-school black metal elements bleed through, the compositions are slower and darker in the riffing and drums.

"Worm of Na'ruq" is a sinister electronic intro. It leads to "Desolate", which is the more doomy track, even leaning into the post-sludge of Neurosis and Isis. The riffing is a bit repetitive, especially when it keeps getting repeated for a third of the track, but other than that, it's pure high-quality darkness. "Halla" is the shortest full song, but it has their blackened side, including screams and organs. Atmospheric black metal is combined with funeral-ish doom, in a similar vein to Katatonia's debut and Dolorian. Suitable for exploring the dark lands of Morytania in RuneScape.

"The 13th Horror" has some killer moments from all 3 of the main genres, but some parts can a little boring and dragged out throughout those 17 minutes. The ambient industrial instrumental finale "Pervertum II" is, oddly enough, the most memorable part of the album. It pretty much exemplifies the dark temptation of the more experimental side of The Sphere. A breath of fresh dark air!

Deimos XIII is a fresh decent album. I just wish some things would be improved for a less draggy repetitive album. It's always good to try new things, whether the results are exciting or disappointing. The Sorvali brothers would focus on their main band after this....

Favorites: "Desolate", "Halla", "Prevertum II"