Search - Thou Shalt Suffer :: Into the Woods of Belial

Superb but obscure Blackened Death masterpiece!

Vorthog | Ontario, Canada | 11/03/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Thou Shalt Suffer was a side-project of Ihsahn and Samoth of Emperor. They were joined on this album by three other musicians. All the music on this disc was recorded in 1991. It includes all the material from their EP "Open the Mysteries of Your Creation", their demo "Into the Woods of Belial", as well as another 4-song rehearsal demo.



If asked to describe their sound, I would say the sub-human, animalistic, grunting vocals remind me of Beherit. And the album's great overall dark, sinister, echoey atmosphere reminds me of Demoncy. But on the whole the riffs are Death Metal, and remind me most of the Blackened Death sound of a group like Blood Ritual, or maybe something like Darkthrone's album where they transitioned between Death and Black Metal, "A Blaze in the Northern Sky". -- That is Death Metal, but played with a Black Metal mentality where pure, raw emotion is more important than technicality. Also, in the tiny bit of keyboards on a couple of tracks early on in the album, we might be able to detect just a tiny dash of Emperor. But if you are like me and don't particularly like keyboards in your Metal, no need to worry here. The use of keyboards here is VERY minimal, and in fact I would say that this album perfectly illustrates the way I think keyboards should be used in Metal (if at all), which is just to give a muted touch of atmosphere.



Some of the same songs get repeated here between the 3 various sources. But no need to worry about that either, because in fact the versions sound different enough from each other that they sounded almost like completely different songs to me. So no, this is not just some filler used to pad out the content in order to shoddily throw together enough material to call this an album. It's stuff that is really worth listening to.



The album closes with an outro that seems to foreshadow Thou Shalt Suffer's future direction. After a 10-year hiatus, in 2001, after the break-up of Emperor Ihsahn reactivated the project and released a second album for the group (even though he was now its sole member). But the second album's musical direction was completely different and turned out to be Dark Ambient instead of Death Metal. Thus this album is in fact the only remaining testament to a fascinating Blackened Death musical experiment that existed for but a brief time, back in the era when Death Metal musicians were just feeling out and exploring the boundaries into the completely new field of Black Metal.



I would say this album is one of the most musically interesting things I have purchased in the past year, and would definitely recommend to all those seeking something a little different and off the musical beaten path to check it out."

Little known release from the pioneers of '90s black metal..

Alex Orwell | 11/29/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Before they came into their own as Emperor, Ihsahn and Samoth, along with a few other musicians, were Thou Shalt Suffer. Unfortunately, not much remains of their pre-Emperor work beyond this excellent release, but it is still powerful stuff.



Many might assume a more black metal sound, but it is really death metal coupled with the darkness and raw style of more traditional black metal -- blackened death, but I am not sure anyone was using the term in 1991. Regardless, it is very aggressive and frequently very fast, with no clean vocals and almost no keyboards. Like the other reviewer, it definitely reminded me of Darkthrone, but I thought it was more Soulside Journey than A Blaze in the Northern Sky. Either way, I sensed considerable influence from their fellow Scandinavians while still remaining unique.



Interestingly, the production is noticeably better than Wrath of the Tyrant + Emperor and its tin can phone sound. Don't get me wrong, I still like that album, and think it's important to any serious fan of Emperor, but I was glad not hear the same sound on this release.



An almost unknown release compared to the popularity and prolific nature of their work in Emperor, Peccatum, Zyklon, (the list goes on), but equally as important. Everybody has to start somewhere, and this is quite a way to do it."