Mortuary Drape

Tolling 13 Knell (2000)

Mortuary Drape have style that is best described as being grounded in the old-school mentality of bands such as Celtic Frost and Mercyful Fate. They have a messy, rough sound mixed with occultist weirdness. There are also hints of the spirit found in bands like Root, Master's Hammer, and also the Hellenic Black Metal bands that all took a more 'heavy metal' based melodic approach to their Black Metal. As is often the case with these kinds of bands first impressions of the musicianship can be  misleading and on this album there is plenty of good musicianship. The band certainly has a keen eye for melody and song development. 

Far from worshipping or cloning the above-mentioned bands, Mortuary Drape have their own unique take on Metal. Immediately noticeable is the off-kilter nature of both the instrumentation and the production. A few things are going on here.  There are dual bass guitars and they are separately mixed on left and right channels respectively with the guitar finding its place in the middle of the mix. This approach is obviously rather unusual in Metal music and has a disconcerting and disorientating effect. But rather than being a mere gimmick, this recording style is vitally important due to the use of the bass guitars on this album.

Far from being just an extra groove/crunch/layer to the rhythm section, the bass guitars are distinctly different entities within the music and they frequently dance around each other. From time to time they form strange chord harmonies that sound like ritualistic droning in the nature of chiming funeral bells. This gives the music a real feeling of foreboding. They will also place counter-point melodies with each other and/or the guitar, which in the more up-tempo sections of the music gives the music a frantic, anxious feeling. There are times where the bass (one or both) play as a lead source of melody - the guitar either falls silent or is pushed to rhythm duties (in some of the darker moments that sound like an incantation for instance). Words do not do this justice, some of the arrangements provide for complex textures and melodic interactions. Holding all of this together is the thick, heavy layering of the drumming, often in the absence of the rhythmic contribution that is generally expected a bassist, drives the flow/groove of the music, but also manages to add a sense of dynamic energy, with all sorts of interesting percussive patterns and fills.

These songs also liberally make use of softer sections, that have a ceremonial vibe and are often meditative, spiritual, esoteric. This helps create a dusty, shadowy atmosphere of a ritual chamber (conjuring images of candles, skulls, musty old tomes). The band are extremely adept at switching between slower and faster sections in order to create a sense of anticipation and tension in the music. These tempo/mood changes are seamless and the speed/heavy metal sections, which are full of both energy and aggression, more importantly do not sound out of place in contrast to the eerie slower sections. This is evident more and more as the album progresses, especially from The Last Supper to the brilliant closing track Lantern.

Due to the unique, odd-ball approach to the music found on Tolling 13 Knell it could be classified as avant-garde Metal - not because the band add new elements from other genres to Metal, but because they changed the way that Metal is played. Whilst it does appear (from this review at least) that the guitar does take a backseat in the music at times, there is an abundance of quality Metal riffing to be found on this album, and if you like dark music that stays true to the riff-heavy roots of the 1980s, whilst exploring different techniques for conveying this style, then you are certainly in for a treat. Much like the older bands of the first-wave of Black Metal, Mortuary Drape were first and foremost a Metal band with no allegiance to a particular style/genre, and had an uncanny knack of creating music dripping with an intangible sense of evil. Most importantly you are left with the feeling that none of this is forced.