What is the most boring thing you’ve ever heard? Like, go back through those memories and there’s probably something that was as boring as say, watching paint dry or flies fuck, a documentary about the secret lives of boll weevils would be more interesting than that, right?

Which brings me to Mortuary Drape and their brand spanking new album Black Mirror. Having formed in 1986 and releasing multiple demos before releasing All the Witches Dance (1994), and the very good Secret Sudaria (1997) I can remember that album as capturing the Black Metal formula in a very Italian style with flourish, so I went back through their discography on Spotify and realized that they were a lot better back then… Fast forward to 2023, nine years after their last release Spiritual Independence mind you.

Is it bad? No. Does it have good songs on it? Yeah, there’s a couple that got my head bopping and those are mostly the ones I will be touching on. The album starts with opener “Restless Death” a bit of ethereal keyboard and some monotone chanting before it gets going, there’s just something missing… anyway, “The Secret Lost” saves the day by being a hefty thrasher with a Blackened edge to it.

“Drowned in Silence” “Into the Oblivion” are a couple of filler tracks that are able to at least make my head move; before the surge of “RattleBreath” which is one of my favorite tracks along with the aforementioned “The Secret Lost”… so two favorite tracks out of eleven. Meh. They represent the best of what Black Mirror has to offer. Honestly, the last half is a blur of mediocrity, and it hurts to say this but at the end of the day this is quite frankly a boring album. “Nocturnal Coven”, “the Mistress of Sorcery”, “the Unburied”, nothing is memorable with this outing to the Black Metal park.

So, ultimately blah. Black Mirror has some good riffs but they’re not enough to raise it to the level that Mortuary Drape had before their nine-year silence. This is for the diehards, if you liked them then you’ll like them now.

 

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