Mortuary Drape - Spiritual Independence

By Tom Campagna. One of Italy’s best metal exports; Mortuary Drape has returned from a decade long silence with a triumphant return in the form of Spiritual Independence. A very straightforward blackened death metal attack

By Tom Campagna.


One of Italy’s best metal exports; Mortuary Drape has returned from a decade long silence with a triumphant return in the form of Spiritual Independence. A very straightforward blackened death metal attack with plenty of ethereal and evil sections that are peppered with heavy metal guitar solos and a bass that is so high in the mix, you’ll wonder why more bands in this genre don’t do the very same.

Songs like “Lithany” and “Once I Read (Marble Tomb)” chug along to some rather spectacular and revenant riffs and the excellent vocals of Wildness Perversion, combine this with SR’s great guitar work which can even feel like the neoclassical sections of Andy LaRocque’s repertoire. Imagine a song that has the framework of an Iron Maiden song and include Steve Harris’ bass and then cram a ton of death metal riffs between some truly evil sounding song structures and you have this album all figured out.

The Drape are nearly 30 years old as a collective with Wildness Perversion being the lone remaining original member; this kind of age adds a serious bit of authenticity when you consider that this album is made with the old school firmly in mind; because the band luckily has never left it behind. When you consider the turnover of band members and the amount of time between albums it is an amazing sight to behold a collective that sounds so tight and so unrefined by today’s metal standards; yet the band is able to stand head and shoulders above other similarly structured bands.

There is a reason that the underground has a deep respect for these hooded warriors; there is plenty more than just aesthetic with this quintet. Equal parts mystery, flash, flourish, and downright ghoulish; Mortuary Drape has pulled back the curtain on a retirement and made Spiritual Independence an album that should thrust them back in the underground’s consciousness. A sure fire favorite for fans of old or anybody who like a great collective of so many older styles of metal mashed together in a precise way.