Woods of Ypres was a Canadian doom metal band from Windsor, Ontario. The band was founded in 2002, initially consisting of three members: David Gold, Aaron Palmer and Brian McManus. Their line-up frequently changed afterward, with over 20 members in the band through its various incarnations, which saw operations later based out of Toronto from 2003 to 2007, and Sault Ste. Marie from 2008 to 2011. Their only constant member was multi-instrumentalist and frontman David Gold, with the band ending after Gold's death in December 2011, just before releasing their album Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light, which won the 2013 Juno Award for the Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year.

Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres. Both the music and the lyrics are intended to evoke a sense of despair, dread, and impending doom. The genre is strongly influenced by the early work of Black Sabbath, who formed a prototype for doom metal. During the first half of the 1980s, a number of bands such as Witchfinder General and Pagan Altar from England, American bands Pentagram, Saint Vitus, the Obsessed, Trouble, and Cirith Ungol, and Swedish band Candlemass defined doom metal as a distinct genre. Pentagram, Saint Vitus, Trouble and Candlemass have been referred to as "the Big Four of Doom Metal".