yes, the
new earth crisis record. i've got to admit that i wasn’t overly excited by the
news of an upcoming record. don’t really know why, i mean i love all their
stuff excluding ‘slither’, especially the last two albums after their
re-union (‘to the death’, of which i will post soon and ‘neutralize the threat’) were pretty great. but as
soon as it dropped i got into the game because i can rely on earth crisis
quality. i’m glad i did. this record is superb to say the least. every song has this typical earth crisis signature of mid-tempo metallic riffs with great hooks and a catchy or melancholic melody here and there.
and there is not a
single filler on this. to me ‘breed the killers’ is hard to top musically but
they got damn close with ‘salvation of innocents’, if not even bettered it. karl buechner added another range to his voice here. i’m pretty lame trying to
give this an adequate name but some chorus lines are sung in a different way. not this cheesy metalcore clear singing but kind
of chanted. reminds me alot of some chorus parts burton c. bell did on fear factory's killer record 'obsolete' (what about a vinyl release of that?). and then there are the lyrics. the whole lyrics are committed to the fight against vivisection. the music is great on its own but together with the lyrics, this is where this record really grabs me. man, words to 'shiver' or 'final breath' give me a hollow feeling in the stomach and pictures of caged and tortured animals flash before my eyes. you can feel the band's disgust for this inhumane pharma and cosmetics industry, and if you can feel music you know it's good. educate yourself and overcome this terror in the name of science. check out 'shiver'!
for this album earth crisis moved from century media to candlelight records. seems odd as candlelight is more known for their black metal stuff but like they say, extremes meet. for vinyl purpose candlelight limited the rights to back on black records, known for vinyl re-issues of metal classics. this british collaboration between these labels worked out well as the presentation is pretty nice. thick cardboard gatefold sleeve, black dust sleeve and 180gr clear blue vinyl. only the cover art is not really my thing. looks like a bad computer game cover. but what do i know... 1000 made. candlelight records/back on black. 2014.
noteworthy is the fact that you can order a comic book based on the lyrical concept of 'salvation of innocents', called 'liberator' at kingsroad merch usa. check it out here. already ordered a copy.
