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Earth Crisis

Salvation Of Innocents

Written by: PP on 08/03/2014 17:42:46

Eight albums down and Earth Crisis are still flying relatively steadily underneath the radar, away from the limelight when it comes to hardcore. Whether it's because their brand of hardcore has elements of crossover thrash to it, or because metalcore influences are creeping in, they've never been able to match in popularity against the heavyweight names in their genre. "Salvation Of Innocents", which was released earlier this week, sees Earth Crisis sound pretty much exactly as they did before, with a few brief escapades outside their comfort zone.

Aside from the Hatebreed style, testosterone-driven macho chug-chug hardcore with anonymous riffs that survive only because of the sheer force they are delivered with, one of these special cases is "Shiver". Here, the band plays with parts that recall sludge metal and post-metal in their subtle melodies and roared, but surprisingly clean vocal delivery, that's a far cry from the uncompromising (and monotonous) yell/scream combination that they are otherwise delivered with. Elsewhere, the band have a few moments of dynamic riffage on for example "The Morbid Glare", but even here you get a feeling that the song is simply several tiers lower quality in terms of songwriting than the popular names in hardcore and metalcore.

It has always been Earth Crisis' problem: how to write heavy and aggressive songs that are also interesting to listen to outside of the live environment. "Salvation Of Innocents" is now their 8th album of attempting to do just that, and while they are briefly grasping for a sustainable level that could push them over the edge from a fringe hardcore band into one that people request to play festivals, it doesn't have enough memorable riffs or vocal parts to compete evenly with the big ones.

Download: Shiver, The Morbid Glare
For the fans of: Hatebreed, Strife, Pro-Pain
Listen: Facebook

Release date 04.03.2014
Candlelight Records