by John SerbaFirst things first, Yersinia Pestis is the Latin name for The Plague bacteria, which is transferred to people via fleas carried by rats -- hence, Torchbearer's torch-carrying and evocative tune Dead Children, Black Rats. With that bleak factoid as its foundation, Torchbearer rips and tears through ten tracks of thrashing, deathly death-thrash that's enjoyable, if a bit redundant in its, um, deathly thrashing. The group plays fast and loose with cliches -- growled vocals, blastbeats, non-stop riff-o-rama, lyrics bordering on self-parody -- and creates a relatively enjoyable, well-executed and crisply produced record in Yersinia Pestis, which boasts a few anthemic arrangements (Faith Bled Dry, Assail the Creation) amongst a clinical display of speed and death\u002Fblack metal aggression. The bottom line here, however, finds Torchbearer(which includes members of Setherial, Incapacity, Satarial and Unmoored, if anyone cares) playing nice within designated boundaries, and Yersinia Pestis has a hard time sticking out from the middle of the pack.