I didn't really check this long-running Italian black metal out until after I saw 'em play at Maryland Deathfest a couple of years ago, an effort hindered by the fact that Mortuary Drape's albums have never been all that easy to get here in the States to begin with. Peaceville recently picked the band up, though, and has started to roll out a reissue campaign for Mortuary Drape's back catalog that began with this re-mastered reissue of their Y2K album Tolling 13 Knell.

    Steeped in esoteric language and composed according to an arcane system that the band attempts to explain in the liner notes, this album stays rooted in a classic blackened thrash sound, but with their weird dual-bass lineup giving their music an unusual sound. The first two songs are a couple of killer blackened thrash tracks, spitting out ferocious riffage in the Venom/Bulldozer vein, but with some wild time signature changes and complex, offbeat riffing that gives 'em a very proggy feel. There's some odd off-time breakdowns scattered through and some cool atmospheric touches in the soaring guitar leads and brief blasts of spooky choral voices.

    But when the third song "Vertical" kicks in with it's creepy nursery-rhyme vocals and eerie chiming prog rock, the band suddenly shifts into something much more akin to a heavy metal Goblin, with mournful guitar melodies and weirdly beautiful falsetto vocals creating a surreal, otherworldly atmosphere. From there, the band heads back into their off-kilter thrash and doom-laden dread, chanting gruffly over intricate thrash riffs, slipping into dark passages of chorus-drenched guitar that hint at classic 80's gloom-rock, those ghastly sing-song vocals recurring throughout the album as do blasts of wheezing pipe organ and those crazy falsetto vocals. It's like hearing some savage late 80's blackthrash outfit suddenly finding themselves in the middle of a Dario Argento set piece. The song "Laylah" is another standout, returning to that Goblin-esque creepiness with a gnarled prog performance, metalic riffs and soaring female voices joining with the spidery guitars and creepy main melody, and then an onslaught of brutal double-bass drumming suddenly kicks in, propelling the band into another killer, rocking blackthrash assault. This album was way more prog-damaged than I expected, and sounds surprisingly similar at times to cult creeps Devil Doll, albeit with a cavernous production that makes this feel as if Tolling 13 Knell could have been recorded in the very catacombs pictured on the album cover.

    The four demo tracks added onto the end of the disc as a bonus have a rawer sound, but are still pretty ass-kicking. The first song "Pentagram" is furious galloping thrash that is a little more straightforward compared to the album material, but the other three songs are more of that awesome proggy, Goblin-flecked thrash that fans of the original album will definitely want to hear. A highly recommended slab of necromantic Italian prog/thrash...