It’s getting more and more difficult nowadays to come up with material that still stands out, for the simple fact that we’ve heard almost everything before already. I mean, let’s face the facts: there’s absolutely no way to deliver something more doomy, more brutal, more technical, more speedy, more blasphemous or whatever without sounding ridiculous. It’s more or less all been done before already. So, instead of trying real hard to reinvent the wheel, the more clever bands these days focus on already established paths and simply come up with their own version of it. Some of them fail miserable, while others nevertheless know to impress for one reason or another. Seattle’s DRAWN AND QUARTERED luckily do represent the second category. They obviously don’t give a fuck about originality, and as long as it’s done with so much dedication and class I couldn’t care less! To me these guys are without any doubts one of the most promising "new" bands in quite a long, long time! Well, being around for over ten years doesn’t necessarily make them a newcomer anymore, but their still very small international status obviously does, which is a shame, really! But I bet my lazy ass, that this is about to change with this record now! While last year’s full length "Extermination Revelry" already left me quite speechless, "Return Of The Black Death" even tops that excellent disc pretty easily! There’s this certain magic surrounding DRAWN AND CONQUERED that you can’t really explain, but it also makes bands like SADISTIC INTENT, INCANTATION, IMMOLATION, MORBID ANGEL etc. very special… and you’ll rarely find that these days. So, in that respect "Return Of The Black Death" is a must have item for everyone into the totally brutal US Death Metal style that used to be so popular in the early 90s. The band quotes the best elements of "Onward To Golgotha" and "Dawn Of Possession", with a handful of "Altars Of Madness" elements thrown in here and there as well and delivers this as a crushing and highly explosive apocalyptic mixture. In other words: excellent and brutal, mostly very fast Death Metal, with sick guitar melodies, a very crunching rhythm section and vocals that neither Ross Dolan nor Craig Pillard could have delivered in a more convincing way! The production has this very rough and blasphemous edge to it and luckily does not sound as sterile as a lot of the new products, while their unique coverart has already become a trademark for the guys. Truely a masterpiece, forged in the fiery depths of hell! So, if you miss out on this, you’ll miss out on one of Death Metal’s soon-to-be classics! Buy! www.moribundcult.com, www.geocities.com/drawn_an_quartered.