Mortuary Drape

Back in the day, the Italian scene was truly thriving.  Necrodeath and Bulldozer practically invented old-school black/thrash, Death SS represented horror-themed occult metal, MonumentuM put out blackened doom/death, and Alessandria's MORTUARY DRAPE made a name for themselves with very strong black metal in the old-school vein.  They formed in 1986, and with demos like 1987's Necromancy and 1989's Doom Returns began to make a name for themselves.

This is 1987's Necromancy in its entirety

Their style was very atmospheric, and had a very occultic feel to it.  Lyrically, Mortuary Drape admitted to being more or less obsessed with witchcraft and black magic and the occult in general.  They even went so far as to label their sound 'black occult metal'.  In the nineties, they began putting out actual studio albums, such as 1991's Into the Drape EP and then the infamous 1994 full-length All the Witches Dance.

"Vengeance From Beyond", from 1991's Into the Drape

Unlike a good number of old-school black metal bands that are still around, Mortuary Drape is still continuing to put out material that stays true to the first-wave black metal ethos.  While they may not have been able to top the 1994 masterpiece All the Witches Dance, they have kept flying the flag for quality Italian black metal when most people aren't even aware that Italy has any black metal to offer.

An example of the (oc)cult sounds of 1994's All the Witches Dance

Select Discography:

Demo '86 (demo) (1986)
Live Tape '87 (live demo) (1987)
Necromancy (demo) (1987)
Doom Return (demo) (1989)
Into the Drape EP (1991)
All the Witches Dance (1994)
Mourn Path EP (1996)
Secret Sudaria (1997)
Tolling 13 Knell (2000)
Buried in Time (2004)

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