Based in Dale City, Virginia, While Heaven Wept emerged in 1989 under the creative direction of guitarist and composer Tom Phillips, making them one of the longest-running acts in American epic doom metal. Their 1998 debut Sorrow of the Angels established classically inflected melodic doom in the tradition of Solitude Aeturnus, while Of Empires Forlorn (2003) and Vast Oceans Lachrymose (2009) introduced progressive and power metal textures. The 2014 concept album Suspended at Aphelion, composed as eleven movements of a single work, represents the peak of their ambitious reach.