FORWARD TO BATTLE
February 2001
Self-financed
Forward To The Battle at Lethewarden
This combo coming from Finland it's fantastic. They have recorded 7 demos from 1988 'till now and finally they have came out with this masterpiece "Forward the Battle". Simply Epic-Doom Metal that could recall bands like Cathedral, Saint Vitus and others, but Spiritus Mortis are able to create a personal sounding particular with the excellent performance of the singer that spread his melodies in a large range of tones, reminding, in some passages, Messiah Marcolin. The opener track is "Forever", classic song in which Vesa's voice (emerge) aggressive and epic. The cd go no with "Beware of Quiet One" where a catchy ,a very slow riffing, that bring me back in the eighties when Cirith Ungol released their cds. Excellent are ""in Pouring Rain" and "Sweet Oblivion" that seemed to be taken from a Cathedral album. More Black Sabbath-like are the last two tracks "Sleeping Beneath the Lawn" and "in Between" that bring the listener to the end of an epic and mourn travel through the notes of those Spiritus Mortis.
8/10
Forward To The Battle at Metalvox
SPIRITUS MORTIS - FORWARD TO THE BATTLE RATING: 4.0
Wow! What a fucking great band! Capturing the initial accords of “Forever” my brain started to have an orgasm and I’ve perceived I was before a great band. The sound translate itself in an irresistible Heavy/Doom/Stoner Metal filled with very groove and some marks NWOBHM. I’ve found queer a little all this groove, ‘cause the finnish don’t have very groove (no generalizing, of course). Who doesn’t grasp to taste the Heavy Metal mark of “In Pouring Rain”, or the “Ultra Sabbathic” sound of “Sweet Oblivion”?? It´s to listen to believe!! But, as nothing is perfect…between very many pros, I shall emphasize an objection: the songs duration don’t exceed 3 minutes and leave a desire to listen more and more. The proof of it: with 6 songs, this demo-CD doesn’t reach 19 minutes. Spiritus Mortis is a full dish to the fans of Heavy Music! Hail the real true Heavy Metal!! (FG – 28/04/2002)
Forward To The Battle at Hellride Music
Spiritus Mortis - Forward to the Battle (Independent Release) by Chris Barnes
Forward to the Battle is the second installment in the Spiritus Mortis discography so far and another stellar example of what the Finnish heavy underground scene is capable of. Instead of following the exact Doom-drenched path of it's predecessor, the Demo 2000 EP, Spiritus Mortis add a classic metal finesse to Forward to the Battle. The result is sounds a bit like a darker, more ominous Manilla Road or Cirith Ungol crossed with classic Trouble. The Spiritus Mortis approach is still a more riff-oriented foray into metal, the songs being much shorter and compact than the aforementioned bands. Vocalist Vesa Lampi has never sounded better, his voice finding greater range than what we heard on Demo 2000. Lampi sounds much more confident in his abilities even venturing into a Gillan-like scream in the CD's most memorable track, "Beware of the Quiet One". Guitarists V-P Rapo and John Mayala also sound like they've found their footing, their Wartell/Franklin-like approach mingling with classic Smith/Murray harmony. My only compliant is the brevity of this CD - by the time you are ready to here six more tunes of glorious metal, the CD is over. Hopefully an aspiring label will offer Spiritus Mortis a deal and get them in the studio for a proper full length.
Forward To The Battle at Vibrations Of Doom
SPIRITUS MORTIS "Forward To The Battle" (Spiritus Mortis) SCORE: 84/100
This is one interesting demo! This is a sweet mixture of doom metal, slow almost sludgy stoner rock, and Manilla Road styled power metal! And yes, this kind of thing DOES work. The vocalist is very low toned, and with such brutal riffs of the 10 M.P.H. variety, it makes his vocal work even more exceptional. This thing all fits! Check out the opening riffs on 'Forever' and 'Sweet Oblivion' if ya don't believe me. His vocal range does tend to dip higher, in fact I was actually surprised at his range, since he is able to go so low. At times, this higher end vocal work does distract from the mood and tone set nearly throughout, in fact on 'Beware Of The Quiet One,' there is a passage that contains just acoustic guitar and him singing, which definitely didn't work as well as I hoped. Their choruses are quite catchy as well, like on 'In Pouring Rain' and the hilarious song titled 'Sleeping Beneath The Lawn.' As a six track EP goes, this isn't bad at all, though it definitely has some rough edges to it. And 'In Between' was about the fastest song of the bunch and sorry to say didn't really fit with the rest of what the band was doing. It got too fast for me near the end. Check out the eerie higher end guitar riffing on 'Sleeping Beneath The Lawn,' which sounded like it was lifted straight off of Slayer's "South Of Heaven" album. I forget which song tho so don't ask! And though 'In Between' fails to hit the mark totally, it does start out with a very cool Spirit Caravan/Obsessed feel to it. I can't wait to hear a full album from these guys, as long as they keep it rough and downtune!
Forward to the Battle at Zeitgeist
Spiritus Mortis - Forward To The Battle
I remember their 3 track demo from 2000, and poo poohed it as run of the mill doom metal. And I was right. As I always am. So when a copy a 6 track demo arrived, I thought, "Aha, twice as bad", but, lo the earth shook, and the gods did speak. "Give it a chance Z", they spake. "Things might have got better". And they were right. Odd, how a band formed in 1988 could take 12 years to produce a piece of pish, and 12 months to produce a cracking slab of doom inspired groove metal. For they have moved on from the basic Black Sabbath, Venom, Celtic Frost generic doom, and now purvey a splendid mutation. I'll make it easy. The 2000 demo was "Paranoid", "Forward To The Battle" is "Supernaut". Amazing leap forward. Spankingly good fun from Finland, "Forward To The Battle" comes heartily recommended.
Forward to the Battle at MusicExtreme
SPIRITUS MORTIS - FORWARD TO THE BATTLE (Independent, 2001)
An excellent opportunity to know something about the music of Finland´s Spiritus Mortis. This is HEAVY METAL! I am putting this with capital letters because this is heavy metal done with a lot of conviction and without falling in the cliches that a lot of the bands in the scene have. IN fact this band has a wider range of influences appart from classical metal bands. I can listen something that is similar to Danzig, and something close to Slayer on "Sleeping Beneath the Lawn" or Black Sabbath on "Sweet Oblivion". The singer has a lot of identity and puts a lot of strength through all the tracks. I like this band a lot and I think they deserve a much better sound and hopefully they will get it on their next release, Totally recommended. Favorite tracks: "Beware of the Quiet One", " In Pouring Rain" and "In Between".
Forward to the Battle at Metalhel
On their latest release, Spiritus Mortis continues to ride straight into the battle much like on the previous demo. The classic metal warriors, such as Manowar and Dio to name a few, very heavily influence the music. Mentioning these bands should give you a pretty clear picture of what we are dealing with here. Usually the bands playing old heavy metal lack a decent singer. Fortunately SM has no problem in this particular area. In fact, you seldom hear singing like this on a demo recording. On the other hand, it does not take a long time to notice that this is not the first demo the guys ever did. This one is definitely about experience. The sound is good for a demo recording. However, perhaps due to the singing, when listening to it I find myself expecting something even more striking. Although the rest of the instruments do not have any real problems they somehow sink below the vocals. Furthermore, the songs need a little more originality in order to stand out from the old great ones. On the other hand, this type of thing is not so common anymore and this gives Spiritus Mortis a nice advantage over e.g. a standard BM band reaching for a record deal. If you are into older heavy metal, this is very recommendable indeed.
3/5 reviewed by Rauta
Forward To The Battle at Metal Radikal
Excellent demo of the band Spiritus Mortis of Finland, influences of "Black Sabath", is heavy metal of the 80, the voice of Vesa remembers "Samson" to me, is one voz clasica, songs as "Forever" emphasizes by the sounds of drums and the guitar does perfect combinacion of sounds, "Beware of the quiet one", the rates very to the "Black Sabbath" are impressive, an excellent band that maintains ideologia musical of the 80, glorious years for the metal, greater informacion:visiten its pagina web
Forward To The Battle at Chronicles Of Chaos
Spiritus Mortis - _Forward to the Battle_ (6-track demo)
by: Chris Flaaten (****)
Spiritus Mortis are from Finland, but does not play the kind of music their name nor location indicate. The band have existed since 1988 (!) and have now united again to show "the Finnish kids" how to play -real- metal, or "perkele heavy metal" as they call it themselves! And metal they play. Following in the footsteps of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple,one can't argue about its "realness". The production is quite good, not high-tech or state-of-the-art, but still close to perfect considering the kind of music they play and that this is a demo. The five-piece plays with confidence and a certain flair, sounding tight and fresh at the same time. The vocalist does an excellent job and his voice is perfect for their sound. Of the six songs on _Forward to the Battle_,"Forever", "In Pouring Rain" and "In Between" are a bit better than the others. Clocking in at 18:26 this demo still has a decent amount of variation, both inbetween songs and in the songs themselves. In conclusion, this demo put a smile on my face, albeit a nostalgic one... I can be a sucker for nostalgia. I somehow doubt this music has much potential in the 2001 metal market, but I do not think this is Spiritus Mortis' goal with their music. Have fun, play metal, perkele!
Forward To The Battle at Doom Metal.com
In my review of their 'Demo 2000' I complained about it being rather short. So the band sent me a lengthier demo with the intention of introducing the then new drummer. The band expressed their unhappiness with the end result, but I would disagree. This demo offers six groovy and epic traditional doom tracks that once more make me look forward to one day a full album gets released by these guys. This demo has more of an epic feel about it then 'Demo 2000' and at times I think that vocalist Vesa would not have been misplaced as the vocalist of an 80ties NWOBHM band. However their Sabbatisch track 'Sweet Oblivion' quickly reminds us all where these guys are coming from and that we are definitely dealing with a doom act. The down-tuned guitars, the sluggish rhythms and the epic wailing vocals, all the things that make traditional doom sound great can be found here. All that is left for me to say is: Forwards to a record deal and full-length album!