I've always been a reasonably large fan of Mortuary Drape. Hell, I even belonged to their fan club a half dozen years ago (they sent me a photo, member card and a sticker!) and if a few people don't pick fun at me because of that, then I will be most delighted.

You can see where a lot of Greek bands found their influence in Mortuary Drape (especially vocally) as the deeper, heavily pushed black grunts are very prominent on the band's recordings. An individual might also notice the Venom influence. Yes, Mortuary Drape were one of the many bands to follow in Venom's footsteps, changing their style into an original one oh so slightly. "All the Witches Dance" is an apparent live recording from '87 (which would be impossible unless they are referring to "Live in the studio") and it fucking rules.

I guess Venom COULD have sounded like Mortuary Drape if they had REALLY worshipped Satan. This is a blacker, darker Venom. It has "Black Metal" rockin' guitar/bass sound, and the music follows that path in a certain way, but Mortuary Drape do it much nastier, especially in the vocal department. And they are twice as evil! This is fucking dark music, and outdoes so many melodic/cute bands that pretend to be evil!

Fucking excellent packaging with live photos, one of the best covers, and quite possibly the best intro ever (an intro that would give bands trying to go for "atmospheric" set-ups a heart attack). This outdoes their previous stuff on Decapitated, the latest mCD (oops, haven't heard the new LP on N.E). Hail the Drape!

© 1999 brand