1991 death metal featuring IHSAHN & SAMOTH (EMPEROR) and ILDJARN! New remaster from the original tapes. Features the three recordings that THOU SHALT SUFFER had released during their short lifespan. Also for this release, the band has opened their vault and for the very first time ever, obscure pre-THOU SHALT SUFFER material! Namely XERASIA with rare rehearsal tracks from 1990, EMBRYONIC rehearsal tracks, and the official EMBRYONIC demo The Land of The Lost Souls from 1990.
Founded by Samoth and Ihsahn in 1991, EMPEROR became widely acclaimed for their innovation and sophistication. They unquestionably rank among black metal's most seminal bands. Throughout their exceptional career, they released landmark albums that will forever belong to the genre's canon. Given EMPEROR's status and popularity, it may then come as a surprise to some that this legendary band was a side-project of the Norwegian duo. This is especially true given that, at the time that EMPEROR was established, Samoth and Ihsahn's main band was THOU SHALT SUFFER.
Although quite a short-lived entity and bound to forever dwell in the shadows of its members' celebrated offshoot, the material which had spawned under the name THOU SHALT SUFFER is notable and worth being paid attention to. Even though the three recordings which comprises of a five-track-rehearsal, the EP Open the Mysteries of Your Creation, and the demo Into the Woods of Belial that the horde managed to unleash in 1991, are no less dark than what EMPEROR came up with subsequently, THOU SHALT SUFFER weren't a black metal band, but were sworn to death metal of a distinctly tenebrous nature. Like many Norwegian bands, including IMMORTAL, ENSLAVED, BORKNAGAR, and HADES ALMIGHTY - who began as death metal acts under different names in the late 1980s and early 1990s before shifting towards black metal, Ihsahn and Samoth, aided by various members, (most infamously Ildjarn on bass), cut their teeth in a death metal outfit. It is sonically somewhat comparable to the earliest period of DARKTHRONE, PARADISE LOST, SENTENCED and the like when all of them still played death metal, and with some hints of CARCASS, which are especially audible in the fast parts, THOU SHALT SUFFER put to tape some great death metal darkness of lasting quality.
