Mortuary Drape

Mortuary Drape announce North American tour with Volahn

Italian black metal vets Mortuary Drape formed back in the 1980s, released two albums in the ’90s, two in the early ’00s, and then broke a decade of silence with the release of 2014’s Spiritual Independence. Here’s an excerpt of Cvlt Nation’s writeup of that album:

One of the oldest black metal bands is breaking ten years of silence. In 1986, these Italian hell hounds were hot on the heels of black metal godfathers Venom, Bathory and Mercyful Fate. Thirty years of evil has taught Mortuary Drape to not let a note go to waste on their newest offering, Spiritual Independence. The creeping chords of “Lithany” might be deemed as classic metal when compared to today’s black metal. The raspy wretchedness of the backing vocals are the one element that has the most in common with modern black metal, as the blast beats are far and few between. Instead, this album takes you back to when bands like Morbid Angel and Deicide conjured up a deadly serious devotion to the dark side. It was also a time when the emphasis was on songs rather than being an opaque wall of white noise for the sake of being heavy. These songs are crafted with the devil in the details, making every instrument count; even the vocals have more purpose than the obligatory howl younger bands now employ.

Mortuary Drape are still active, and they recently announced that they’ll come to North America this summer for a tour with the great Volahn. The tour includes a NYC show on July 18 at Saint Vitus (tickets).

All dates are listed, with a stream of Spiritual Independence and Volahn’s recently-released split with Xaxamatza, below.

Mortuary Drape Volahn tour

Mortuary Drape / Volahn — 2018 Tour Dates
06/26 Richmond, VA
06/27 Atlanta, GA
06/28 New Orleans, LA
06/29 Houston, TX- Destroying Texas Fest
07/01 San Antonio, TX
07/02 El Paso, TX
07/03 Scottsdale, AZ
07/04 San Diego, CA
07/06 Los Angeles, CA
07/07 Oakland, CA
07/08 Portland, OR
07/09 Seattle, WA
07/10 Boise, ID
07/12 Denver, CO
07/15 Cleveland, OH
07/16 Washington, MD
07/17 Philadelphia, PA
07/19 New York, NY
07/20 Montreal, QC
07/21 Toronto, ON