Earth Crisis
“Slither”
(Victory Records)
Metallic hard-core that has grown out of its tag and is pushing to further define heaviness. Riff jumping across ripping guitars, rumble low end bass and interjected doses of vocalist Karl Buechner’s best attempt at a Burton Bell (Fear Factory) howl, Earth Crisis put a lot of effort into the construction of their rage.
Songs tend to have a varied approach that usually revolve around the chugging guitar crunch and the standard core barks of aggression. Earth Crisis are the kids that grew up on east coast punk but still had an appreciation for Pantera.
And with “Slither”, the harmonics that the guitars sometimes bounce on show some of the new jack metal scene seeping in (just a little though). The band is remakable at pasting together sections of songs to give the individual numbers a sense of their own structures but at times, this gives a certain cut-n-paste feel and loses the direction. But mostly, the band succeeds in melding this hard-core, metal, punk inspiration into a slightly different animal (mostly evidenced with the more “melodic” type paths that are delivered in small bridges and breaks).
“I turned myself into a monster, to fight the monsters of the world” confesses, “Nemesis” and offers some justification, core-style, on what breeds dissatisfaction of these levels. A certain acceptability of the general east coast punk/metal sound will be a necessity to fully grasp this band, as they are good example of the contemporary scene making noise in those circles. And aside from those little melodic injections (see the pretty drift of guitar that’s dosed throughout “Behind the Wire”), Earth Crisis mostly pummel in that hoarse bark and guitar chunk mentality (see label mates Hatebreed for a reference on the gruff angle of Earth Crisis).
Known previous for having some serious political motivations and backed by a large catalog, this is probably the band at its most accessible to a new audience and progressing into their own stride.
