Woods of Ypres was formed in 2002 by David Gold, Aaron Palmer, and Brian McManus. The trio released the first Woods Of Ypres demo, Against the Seasons: Cold Winter Songs from the Dead Summer Heat, the same year. The fourth Woods of Ypres album, Woods IV: The Green Album, was released in November 2009. Exclaim! called it "the band's most amorphous and powerful creature so far." All of the band's albums have been released on independent labels. Woods of Ypres was thought to have broken up in 2010 due to frontman David Gold's move to Kuwait for financial and occupational reasons. However, that was refuted by Gold himself. In October 2010, it was announced that rumoors of the band's split were entirely false and that Woods of Ypres had signed to Earache Records. On December 22, 2011, David Gold died at age 31 in a car accident near Barrie, Ontario. Woods of Ypres' fifth and final album, Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light, was released February 27, 2012.