TORCHBEARER - Yersinia Pestis

TORCHBEARER
Yersinia Pestis
Cold Records
7/10





Torchbearer issues some reckless, technical death that grows on the listener after a couple of spins, but ultimately offers very little new to a genre that has to be pushed to its limits in order to remain entertaining. death metal requires that musicians challenge the listener with new ideas, having completely burned out once already, the style is one that simply must be expanded upon in order to retain its effectiveness. During the track “Dead Children, Black Rats”, vocalist Par Johansson changes his voice up a bit, allowing a deep and ominous speaking voice to give the track a dose of character. Production-wise, this is an excellent record. The intensely compressed kick drums have an original quality that causes the music to seem more stabbing and akin to Sinister in some moments. This record’s gover features a artistically interesting, well done version of a reaper figure that helps to bring out the mental imagery in the album’s lyrics. ‘Bearer Of The Torch’ stands out as this records finest track offering the varied dynamics that make this music truly memorable. This song contains some thick grooves, intricate melodies during the breaks and seriously damaging blasts. You will discover some competent guitar solos tastefully dispersed throughout the record. These solos are blazing scale runs that are performed with a skilled precision. A strictly infectious chugging riff graces ‘Pest Cometh’, while the more frantic portions of this track are slightly reminiscent of Morbid Angel if that group had a growler which was a bit darker sounding. “Thus Dying Came Unto Kaffa” is a speedy, blackened burst which is emphasized by the type of melodic diversion you would expect to hear from a power metal band, then Torchbearer returns to high gear for the song’s hyper-blasting verse. Henrik Schonstrom plays at blinding speed on “Failures Dawn”, sounding eerily machinelike and inhuman. Lyrically, the band has some decent darkened poetry that is well written and makes for great thematic content overall. Torchbearer is a group that would appeal to most fans of death metal, and perhaps a small segment of black metal fans. Tossing a bit more diversity amongst the blasts certainly would not harm the efforts of this group, but “Yersinia Pestis” still makes for a solid death metal listen, despite its lack of originality.