EARTH CRISIS - Salvation of Innocents

I have always thought of Earth Crisis as The Beatles of late era hardcore/metalcore, a band that other bands measured themselves by. Destroy the Machines and Gomorrah's Season Ends are beautiful albums where a new ground was broken, the band courageous and unafraid to march on to pastures anew. In the former you can hear how the band strains almost beyond its capabilities, their vision overriding technical abilities. This factor in music making is so beautiful and pure, it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. The chord changes in and the somewhat odd structure of "Born from Pain" is amble proof of just how far ahead of its time the band was.

But things took a turn for the worse swiftly. I dig Breed the Killers, their Roadrunner album, a lot though. A streamlined, "rocking" version of the first two albums that totally works. But the nu-metal leanings of Slither (2000) have not aged well and the band is simply in a terrible place on that album. Really, it's embarrassing. The end was nigh.

I, like many others, got the little schoolboy glee when I heard about a new Earth Crisis album. And I have to say, I do like To the Death (2009) and Neutralize the Threat (2011). I like them for what they are, a no-nonsense "Earth Crisis" albums, drawing richly from the Breed the Killers era. Of course these albums could never had the same impact as the initial albums but as reformation albums go, Earth Crisis pull it off gracefully. You naturally think about the drive behind albums like that, most likely they are an excuse to get back on the road, a place that most reformed bands find themselves in. And as I say, there's gracefulness to the albums but a new ground is nowhere in sight and in places, some turds to float to the surface it has to be said. When the automatic gear is at it's most automatic, Earth Crisis sound like a pale shadow of the bands they originally inspired.

Which brings us to this, comeback album no. 3. And ... it's more of the same. If a slightly lesser affair, and that worries me. Sure, we have the rock solid groovers that comfort you, mostly because they remind you of the earlier stuff (I think this is a big factor in all albums like this. The past is these bands worst enemy). But we also have, shock, some straying from the formula which absolutely is not working out. On selected tracks, we get an almost clean vocal chorus which makes me cringe. Christ. And it frighteningly reminds me of the misguided experiments we find on Slither. Listen, Karl and co, keep it pure and straight, just like the politics.

And yeah, the cover is truly terrible. I mean, like, truly. [Candlelight] - Arnar Eggert

Arnar Eggert Thoroddsen is a journalist, writer and an academic, at the moment seeking a Doctorate degree at the University of Edinburgh under the supervision of Professor Simon Frith. He's been writing about music and popular culture since 1999, mainly for Morgunblaðið daily but his writings have also appeared in article collections and music sites abroad. He has written three books on music and been in numerous jury panels and boards, both at home and abroad. He has also presented his own radio show and webisodes, DJ'ed, organized concert series and is a regular commentator on music in television and radio.
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