"For death remember'd should be like a mirror,
Who tells us life's but breath, to trust it error. "
William Shakespeare
The band were born in Rio de Janeiro, being baptized with the latino expression for 'image of death'. In 1995 the demo-tape Réquiem was recorded and recieved a warm welcome by the public and the undergroud press. In the same year, Imago Mortis won several school festivals including Overdrive, at the time, one of the most important alternative events in Rio. During the following two years the band performed exhaustively on alternative circuits and universities in the Southeast region, culminating in a concert at Concha Acústica of UERJ and a participation in a festival at Nova Friburgo, both with an audience of thousands of people. In addition, an advertising that included a quarterly informative with a circulation of 5.000 copies, all helped Imago Mortis to become one of the most popular new bands in the whole of the country

In 1998 the band signed with Megahard Records, a label from São Paulo, that began searching for the biggest talents within the national Metal scene. They released the album Images From The Shady Gallery, acclaimed by the editors of the biggest specialized magazines of Brazil (Rock Brigade, Roadie Crew, Metal Head e Metamúsica, among others) as one of the best launchings of the year. On special edition of Rock Brigade with the best of 1998, the reader's votes placed Imago Mortis in two categories: "Revelation Band" and "Best Keyboardist". At the same time, the biggest exposure of the band's work abroad begins to bring results: From The Shady Gallery is considered one of the ten best albums of 1998 by the Greek magazine Invader.

Alternating pros and cons, melancholy and aggressiveness, this album has as it's main characteristic the synthesis of contrasts, from the fury of worded riffs to the dense and introspective climates, blended into an enigmatic and provocative music. Several participations of guest musicians added a special shine to the CD, with the highlight of Luiz Fernando Zamith's cello ( member of Rio de Janeiro's Municipal Theater Orchestra ) and to the powerful vocals of Carlos Lopes ( lider of Dorsal Atlântica ), who also signs the production of the CD.

Imago Mortis quickly became one of the biggest sales successes of Megahard, and the excellent upshot of the cd was that 3 fan clubs dedicated to the band emerged: the Imago Mortis FC ( São Paulo ), the Gothic Doom Philosophy ( Belo Horizonte ) and the Empty Cradle FC ( Fortaleza ). Up until then, this had never been accomplished by any other Heavy Metal band in Brazil. To follow were live performances of the CD in several Brazilian cities, culminating at the presentation as the main act band at Palco do Rock, festival carried out during Salvador's carnival, at Piatã's beach, with a public of roughly 25.000 people per day.

In November of 2002, after a long wait, Imago Mortis second work finally gets released, the internationally acclaimed VIDA --- The Play of Change, by the record company Die Hard Records.

The album tells the story of a person who discovered to be suffering from VIDA, a terminal and incurable disease. The listener is invited, throughout the 12 tracks which make up the album, to live this person's encounter with death. VIDA was based on studies and reports carried out with the terminally ill, such as on several philosophical and artistical works about the topic. The CD includes a multimedia track, The Play of Change, a game of oracles based on I Ching, the millenary Book of Change.

This launching gives continuity to the partnership initiated in 2001, with the CD WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S HAMLET. For this project, Imago Mortis composed the track Prayers In The Wind.

VIDA, The Play Of Change, was lincensed for all Europe, Israel, Turkey and countries that formed the old Soviet Union, in partnership with Mausoleum Records and was launched at the beginning of the year 2004. The album is also being released in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

The reviews abroad were the best possible, and the album quickly began rising to prominence. Sales were also surprisingly swift.

Imago Mortis presents a strong difference in it's work: the topic of the songs, that has death as its principle reference and biggest source of inspiration. This posture, that has it's origin at the perception that a true comprehension of man's mortality is fundamental for a full and rich life in meaning, is apparent in the band and it's logo, that utilizes a stylized version of Plato, archetypical mister of the kingdom of the dead and the unconsciousness. In Imago Mortis songs, this topic is explored as well as from a strictly personal vision of death, from reflections of some of the biggest thinkers of western culture ( Plato, Freud, Nietzsche, Descartes etc. ) and of elements taken from Greek mythology, Buddhism and Taoism, as well as Christianism and afro-brazilian religions.

OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY (2004)