So no, it's not sleep paralysis. Nor is it the theocratic interpretation of it created in the Middle Ages in the form of a female demoness. It is the band from Thessaloniki that has made its presence felt in our music scene.
MORA is a trio that has created a unique musical path. Taking elements of goth , darkwave , post punk , industrial , alternative , electro & soundtrack aesthetics they have created their own solid sound. Their lyricism is at a high level, straddling the line between poetry and literature.
The band's original idea of "musical literature of horror and fantasy", as they call it, is strong in their first album called "The Call of Cthulhu" (Lovecraft fans will be thrilled!).
The admittedly very strong album contains "Creatures" (of insmouth ?) "Monolith" and of course the homonymous "Call of Cthulhu" which of course refer to the work of the great Howard Phillips Lovecraft. The Orwellian "nightmare" but also Chambers' "Wan King" are present extending the themes. And finally 'the lake' and 'the tree' plunge us into the atmosphere of classic horror that characterizes the short stories of the related literature...
But MORA take it even further and give us the sensational Nitocris which was recently released with eight iconic songs. But we will talk about their second album in more detail in another article.
In the two and a half years that have passed since their first album it seems that the band has done a lot of work and we can say that MORA are making songs that leave a strong mark.
The strong musical identity of their work is unique. The lyrics are sometimes poetic and sometimes more direct, but always dark...
MORA were distinguished among 165 nominations and performed at the #SKG music fest under the auspices of the cultural centre of the region of central Macedonia on 17 April 2024, where they presented for the first time their settings of poems by Kostas Karyotakis and Konstantinos Cavafy for their third album.
In 2024 they released the single ALGORITHMI . A powerful atmospheric industrial song that fascinates.
On 6 December (the day Pavlos Sidiropoulos passed away) in 2024, the single ‘The Hour of Stuff’ is released. It is their cover of Pavlos' song, performed in their own unique style.
This arrangement brings out all the darkness of the lyrics and surrounds it with Gothic aesthetics, taking the song somewhere else.
The band's third album was released in the fall of 2025. It is a work that includes, for the first time, musical adaptations of the "cursed Greek poets" in a way that has never been done before. Mora's musical idiom impressively brings to life the poetry of: Kostas Karyotakis, Constantine Cavafy, Napoleon Lapathiotis, Lorentzos Mavilis, Anthi Stathopoulou-Vafopoulou, Manolis Anagnostakis, and Katerina Gogou. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
We could say that these poems now have the music they deserve! In Katerina Gogou's poem "How She Looks at Me," Mora joins forces with Magic de Spell (who first set "My Friends" to music, making Gogou's work known) and specifically with Thodoris Vlachakis. Listeners to this album, entitled "The Voices of the Cursed Poets," will discover something special in the songs—a different bridge between poetry and music. This will introduce the audience to a new chapter in Mora's "Musical Literature."
The trio consists of:
Giorgos Tiacas (Vocals - guitar - synthesizer)
Bakis Efremidis (bass)
Christos Kiatas (Drums)
MORA have excellent videos (clips) that are way ahead of the Greek standards...you can find them on their youtube channel.
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