Before metal-core became a bad word that came to define a particularly gutless brand of American metal it was the sole domain of a handful of vicious American bands that had one foot in hardcore and the other in thrash by way of Slayer. Integrity and Converge were the particularly vicious ones but Earth Crisis was always the best of the lot.

Well, after a good eight years of silence, the band has reformed and returns with their best album since 1998s Breed the Killers. The band is still all about being and talking about their straight edge lifestyle and philosophy while essentially playing the same music. It’s groovy, heavy as fuck and filled with plenty of killer grooves. Stand out tracks include album opener Against the Current which mixes the band’s hardcore pedigree with a terrific breakdown, To Ashes with its refrain of “every meth lab burned” is quite awesome and has a terrific performance from vocalist Karl Beuchner, Security Threat and When Slaves Revolt both nod their head to the NYHC sound and sound killer while Control Through Fear sounds like Integrity used to in the late 90s (fucking vicious like a rabid dog).

There really isn’t a bad song on this album. The majority of music here could have been easily written for Gomorrah’s Season Ends or Breed the Killers in terms of how aggressive the band is sounding. It’s just like the good old days except for the part that this is the cleanest production job the band has ever got. The guitars have never sounded this clean on an Earth Crisis album and Beuchner’s completely maniacal vocal attack has toned down just a little bit although that might simply be done to old age.

All in all, I guess your enjoyment of this album will depend entirely on how you like those original metal-core bands and even hardcore. This album is eleven songs in 32 minutes and it’s all good. Earth Crisis has made a very impressive comeback with To the Death and is still very much the leader of the pack. Check this out.

Label - Century Media
Year of Release - 2009