Slither

Excellent, Thank You.

Earth Crisis have matured and it sounds amazing, many older fans may accuse them of selling out purely becasue Karl Buechner appears to have dicovered, dare I say it 'melody' in his vocals! However, Earth Crisis still maintain theri political agenda and amazingly heavy, grinding music.The opening track 'Loss of Humanity' sounds like the sort of thing that you would find on a Soulfly album with it's tribal drumming intro. This album is so different to anything else earth crisis have done (no not sell outs, its called progression!) and most other stuff out there. This could be the album to break them out of the hardcore scene. Fans of VOD, Slipknot, RATM, SOAD and hardcore will find this a perfect album.

Earth Crisis is an amazing band - though I don't agree with their views on veganism and practicing a straightedge lifestyle, I still love their music."Slither" sounds a lot like Project 86 mixed with a little Sick of it All and Downset, due to the hiphop-inspired parts of certain songs - "Behind the Wire" and the title track immediately come to mind after listening to the CD a few times. Though their music has changed quite a lot over the years, (as "Slither" is a far cry from the oldschool HC days of "All Out War" and "Firestorm") it's nothing less aggressive and powerful. The addition of Karl's clean vocals in the vein of Burton C Bell from Fear Factory really add a lot to the music - it's not so monotonous and one-dimensional as "Gomorrah's Season Ends."If you're a hardcore fan, especially one who enjoyed ExC's previous work "Breed The Killers," then by all means pick "Slither" up. It picks up where the former left off and continues in a fresh new way, but still crunches just like you'd expect from an Earth Crisis record.

Indeed I am truly not a fan of the usual Victory Records generic hardcore BS. While it might be good as far as hardcore is concerned almost all of it is so unoriginal as to be annoying to listen to. Earth Crisis themselves was on this wagon until this album came out and while better then most they still seemed to produce mostly generic hardcore with some excellent lyrics. So when I downloaded the songs Slither and Nemesis expecting more typical loud and boring hardcore I was shocked to find EC really adapting their sound yet maintaining a mostly hardcore sound, exactly what I was hoping for but didn't really expect to happen. This album is a step in the right direction for these guys and while they never will be equals with The Dillinger Escape Plan or Cave-In they seem to be rising above the majority of hardcore bands into something special. I give this album a four and not a five because the day before buying it I had purchased the new album Jupiter by Cave-In and was (and still am) so in awe about how unbelievable it is that everything else just dosn't sound as good.

I will start this review off by admitting that I haven't been into Earth Crisis that long, only a year or two. I bought "Breed the Killers" and was impressed with the music overall, but I HATED the vocals. "Slither" makes a huge improvement in that department. Karl sings a little more and "raps" a little (I dont think its rapping, it's more like the way Tom Araya from Slayer sounds), along with his usual roars. This time though, the roars are a little bit more understandable and more bearable to me, because of the fact that he doesn't do them the whole time. The music is also a little more melodic, though still very heavy. It isn't as dark and heavy as "Breed the Killers", but still heavy and good in it's own way. My only complaints are: 1. Karl only sounds good sometimes when he sings, and if he can't sound good the whole time, he shouldn't do it at all. 2. "Behind the Wire" is a different version from the Victory Records sampler, the one on the Victory sampler was a million times better in every possible way. Overall, an good record, I just hope they make the right changes and make the next one better.

I have listened to Earth Crisis since the mid 90s, when Destroy the Machines came out. I'll admit, at 35 I'm still straight edge. I have 4 kids, and happy marriage, and a great job. I have a successful military career (6 years) to look back on, and both undergraduate and graduate degrees. I don't think I am an unusual case. I have an issue with the umbrella statements that all sXe people are teenagers and prone to a life of alcoholism upon attainment of 21 years of life.I have always liked EC's music; as a musician myself (guitar) I am always impressed at how raw a guitar sound they get. However, I have never subscribed to the vegan movement, I think it's stupid and ridiculous to presume that eating meat (a dietary necessity) is morally bad. Sure, we could treat the animals better in farms and testing labs, but don't think for a second that this message of environmental veganism doesn't get clouded by the plastic jewel case, inks and dyes, and absolutely certain meat consumption by the graphic artists, producers, mixers, and other personnel involved in producing this product. And how do you think the cotton was (backbreakingly) harvested for those shirts and hoodies? And how do you think that merch was manufactured? By magical, high paid labor union workers? No it was harvested by underpaid imigrant labor, and the shirts and hats were manufactured in sweat shops. This is were the hypocrasy takes root. This message has always eluded me, how a group of people could be so sure about how everyone else should live, but pay so little attention to the details of the example they set. But I have enjoyed the music. Like much of what Hollywood creates, I must detach myself from who is in it, or what their political beliefs are, in order to enjoy the end product ... and have gotten to the point where I rarely even attempt to see or hear the end product anymore.Fortunately, I've never been able to understand (much less "sing" along with) Karl. His vocals, until Slither, were always a mush of uninspired growls and yelling. I'm glad to witness the change (it only took ten years!). I really enjoyed Slither. I think it was a breakthrough for EC, and showed a level of growth, songwriting, and maturation for the band that sets this album apart from their catalogue. I'm sorry to see them disband, but honestly, I don't know how they stayed together so long. None of their records have ever broken the gold sales mark, and while a staple in the sXe movement, they have rarely broken into the national spotlight for their music.If you can overlook the anger and ridiculousness of the veganist message, this is a great album. It is definitely a milestone for EC and the only record in their entire catalogue that really stands out as any different from the rest.