Oratorio Mortem 2 : The Unwanted Requiem (New song after 24yrs absence, released 25.11.2023)
Hello all, this is Malcolm, founder of Sceptocrypt in 1992 in Malta, re-launching the band back in 2023 here in London!
How to find the right words to start this? While elated to finally share new music after 24 years, on the other hand returning with a requiem isn’t the most fashionable thing isn’t it? But we never followed trends anyway……
So why celebrate a return with a requiem? Here’s the scoop!
Back in September this year, I got the call that my mom Doris Callus was very unwell. I left London the day after for her to pass away on 25.09.2023, just 1 day after my arrival in Malta. Having only seen her remotely the last couple of years, I wanted to thank her for struggling to stay alive till I came to visit. And this song, released on 25.11, two months since she passed away to a different dimension – precisely at 04.05am as the clock in the picture shows – is my thank you! Enjoy the cover art to this requeim, masterly crafted by Twan Sibon of www.brutalism.com, also including an angel with a trumpet, which in the spiritual world represents us releasing our grip & surrending to the currents of life, inviting us to flow effortlessly with the cosmic rhythm.
Which is what my mom always did! As from a video I was shown of her few years earlier, jumping in the middle of a cast of pro dancers hired for a video shooting, herself not a pro dancer nor part of the cast, dancing to her own beat (being older than the younger dancers) & against the direction of yet in sync with the rest. “Dance as if no one is watching, sing as if no one were listening, and live every day as if it were your last! Definitely a way to live life!” goes the saying, what my mom was, as anyone who knew her could attest! In fact, maybe even the advert director observed this, as he included her shots into the final advert.
Surely, this video reconnected me with my mom quite strongly. As how I make music has always been me, in my most genuine form, whether it appeals to others or not, whether it fits one style or not! That people feed their belly with cuisines from different cultures yet do not feed their ears likewise is something I never understand. But to each his own, and my music inadvertenly always has influences from many a genre. Art & how I express it always comes first, even if it means going vs the grain, like my mom did! So thank you Doris tal-Belt!
Anyway, as much as I admired how mom led her life, the week of her passing was full of restlessness & lacking sleep! Yet, when my friend Sean (from Forsaken) lent me a guitar to teach while away from London, music flew like a catharsis, and in less than 1 hour, I came up with some riffs, worked on their order and some arrangements, and a few days later I was at another friend David (Spinesplitter Studios) to record all.
So then I wondered what to entitle the song!
Initially, it was coined just as “The Unwanted Requiem”. Sure, every requiem is unwanted. But although one enjoys the music and expressions requiems by others make one feel, when it comes to terms to writing one for someone close, you feel how unwanted it becomes, a sense of grief that I personally carried through the process of the writing, recording, art design and promotion of what you hearing/reading now.
Then I remembered how resilient my mom always taught me to be. So I remembered how Sceptocrypt was about to split up in 1996 but then found new musicians, recorded “Oratorio Mortem” in 1997, and thereafter we launched into our strongest line-up and more regular shows. So to co-incide with the band’s return in 2023, I thought it would be befitting to call this song “Oratorio Mortem 2”, hopefully the beginning of good things to come for Sceptocrypt. If you like what you are hearing, please do like, share and all the rest. And if you are a drummer out there in London, we are still looking for one to get near to 2 albums worth of music out live! Thank you!
So here for you all : “Oratorio Mortem 2 : The Unwanted Requiem”
In closing, may I take the opportunity to hereby give homage to 3 others now also on the other side, namely
– my nephew Luca Micallef, who passed away 1 year ago, after 15 years of struggle (in fact at our bandcamp you can download the track for £1 only – donations till the end of 2023 will go towards https://embracediversitymalta.com/ which my sister Maureen (& mother of Luca) runs with/for parents of kids with severe disabilities, sensory issues and intellectual disabilities; donations from 2024 will go towards expenses of running Sceptocrypt)
– Pawlu Camilleri, who had sung the bass vocals on our original Oratorio Mortem in 1997;
– Marcello Scalpello, with whom I co-founded Sceptocrypt, before he moved to be more prolific with local death metal Beheaded;
So to all 4 on the other side – Memoria de valens vivat tamque vestri (Your Memory Lives On)
Credits :
David Depasquale, Spine Splitter Studios : recording, sound design, mixing & mastering
Twan Sibon, Brutalism : artwork
Emvin Mifsud, Ewvin by Me : photography of clocks
Sean Vukovic, Vukovic Music: lending me a guitar to compose & record with
If you want to leave a comment about this new song, head to our Fan section here or leave it on our socials if you seeing this as such a post. Thank you
Sceptocrypt will also be featured on Maltese radio shows Heatstrokes & Rock Moods, with a written feature on www.melodija.eu a few days later!
