Drawn And Quartered Bio

Time moves on, and so do trends, particularly in metal. Seattle death metal warriors Drawn And Quartered know this better than anyone, having perfected their dark, foreboding craft for more than a decade now. Along the way, more and more hordes have taken notice of these perpetual underdogs' thoroughly evil might. But don't EVER think time has dulled the quintet's senses. Deadly proof: Drawn And Quartered's fourth and latest album, Hail Infernal Darkness.

If 2004's Return of the Black Death was the sound of D+Q both staying the dark, foreboding course and pushing it to unfathomable lengths of dread-inducing evil, the no-less-aptly titled Hail Infernal Darkness sees these titans integrating more evocative, often doomy lead-guitar work that ably benefits the slithering nature of these new attacks. As songs surge forward and, yes, slither in myriad manners - yet, most importantly, never losing sight of a linear goal - a palpably unsettling air of barely controlled chaos creeps in, keeping the helpless listener entranced and waiting on edge for a subtly shapeshifting construct to bring deliverance.



And indeed, bring deliverance Hail Infernal Darkness does - 666 times over. Once again recording at the Autopsy Room (3 Inches of Blood, INFERNAL LEGION) with Jesse O'Donnell, D+Q evoke that elusive sense of the arcane long lost in most death metal. Now more than ever, Hail Infernal Darkness is everything you'd want in a timeless tome of death metal: unremittingly dark, tauntingly heavy, irrevocably evil, scabrously raw yet chemically focused.

Through such efforts, D+Q in fact hail infernal darkness, and their mission is simply infectious, if not downright mandatory. It is Man's Death Metal, made by real men. You'll find no fence-riding, please-all-demographics Johnny-come-lately "death metal" here, futilely vying for children's Myspace-addled "attention." Instead, D+Q present REAL EVIL, real death metal proudly shackled to the form yet never succumbing to cliché, upholding the artform's noblest pursuits with deadly sincerity and frightening aplomb.



So, when a word such as "evil" has been dumbed down to obsolescence and death metal, in kind, has teetered far too close to co-option by forces far from fortuitous - hardcore, screamo, the mainstream, whatever - Drawn And Quartered will be leading the resistance, forever Hailing Infernal Darkness. And the resistance should be branded Hail Infernal Darkness.