The band first started off as Kelley Kuciemba's own project Plague Bearer. In 1993 Herb Burke joined the band with a couple other members and they released a demo called "Bubonic Death" which contained all music written by Kelley prior to the band's formation. It was distributed by Moribund Records. They soon changed their name to Drawn and Quartered. After that Kelly used the Plague Bearer name as a continuation of his project.