TORCHBEARER is a young Swedish outfit. Young in terms of the band's age, as "Yersinia Pestis" (Latin for plague bacillus) is their debut release. The musicians themselves are involved in such groups as SATHARIEL, SETHERIAL, UNMOORED, CHAOSDAEMON, INCAPACITY, and SOLAR DAWN. Despite their Swedish origins, they have not turned to modern thrash/death, melodic death, or old-school death. TORCHBEARER play a high-speed blend of death/black/thrash, punctuated in places by solid solos. Notably, the fastest moments in the compositions are the black metal sections, while the solos naturally cut through during the death metal passages. In other words, as you have probably already guessed, death and black are not heaped together the way most bands of this kind do it — they are almost consistently and clearly separated. There are, of course, moments where they briefly converge. Such a mix also calls for two vocalists. That's right — both screams and growls are present. A very strong debut!
