MORTUARY DRAPE
MORTUARY DRAPE “Black Mirror”
By Octopi Mills
Old and genuine, the creepiness of this band is both legendary and of dangerous renown. DRAPE has always had a very serious and dark sound that separates them from not only other Italian bands but most anyone in general. There is an air of true death around the band, and the talk that these fellows are actually in league with necromantic practice and such.
“Black Mirror” starts with the old style and time honored approach, sounding like the noise of evil spirits in itself. As always, the vocals are haunting and disturbing. "The Secret Lost" rattles around, the bass like a creaking bone cart and the vocals narrate like some skeleton rider. And the vocals are a strong influence here, sounding like a vortex to terrible places that swirl with dead spirits. This would be the entity called Wilderness Perversion. In keeping with their sound of old and these patterns there is a sort of ritual to it all that is lost to other forms of music, some sort of dread atmosphere that can be felt in the music itself, as if it is truly haunted, and I personally believe it is.
The bass and the guitars are quite prominent and gallop and trot, making them nearly the focal point of the music at times whereas often the guitar is nearly secondary and like a dressing . The guitars still keep the fiery solos and discordant, creepy picking melodies one would consider a staple of DRAPE's long legacy though. "Rattle Breath" has a very unique and sinister vocal approach and musical mode that is interesting and powerful; strange in meter and in mood and stands as a very unique track. "The Unburied" shows the power of the bass again in this band, a strong feature that stands out, whilst "Fading Flowers Spell" nearly stands as a dark sort of ballad in its beginning. The album ends with a true dark ballad called, aptly, "Black Mirror". This is easily one of the best albums of the year and keeps a long trail of legendary music in the songs themselves, as MORTUARY DRAPE has always done.