Megaptera has been on my playlist a lot lately. It's one of those bands I used to foolishly dislike as being too cheesy, but later grown to appreciate. Cheese? Yes, but also uniquely morbid atmospheres to dwell on. I'm not the biggest fan of those first two tapes though, they are ok but more leaning towards the rhythms. Urashima reissue of Near Death looks great, but with current vinyl prices, maybe not that great. Releases thereafter are more atmospheric. The recipe for many of the tracks is quite an audacious thing to pull off: a random horror movie scene playing in the background and dark ambient/death industrial sounds on top of it. In case of Megaptera, it works. Movie influences are clear on Passage/Passage to Your Evil Dreams, that sounds very similar to Brad Fiedel's theme to Serpent and the Rainbow.
Hardly any other band actually sounds similar, especially the 90's releases. There probably are some, but I have not really searched. On the other hand, how to recreate something similar without sounding like a copycat? Beyond the Massive Darkness 2xCD, Disease, especially that last longer track, Squire goes insane, Curse of the Scarecrow, Staring Back at You...all excellent. Bandcamp page says Curse of the Scarecrow is 2015 remaster, but it's not released on cd after 90s. Maybe someday.
