I've been waiting for an Earth Crisis record comparable to Destroy the Machines or Firestorm for ages now. This new record was a big hope for me, since I figured it would put an end to the giant metal machine that Earth Crisis was turning into. I wanted that raw, precise hardcore that put Straight Edge Vegan Hardcore on the map so many years ago.

Let's be honest. Try and remember the first time you heard Destroy the Machines, it was unbelievable; surgical, aggressive, and totally raw. As Earth Crisis progressed, the music became more metal-influenced, Karl started singing heavier, more incomprehensible, and the music itself became more obfuscated. Just heavy, but by the last record,Breed the Killers, they were lacking in the soul that made their earlier stuff so good. It was so slick, produced, and metal that the music was gone.

Most people blamed Ozzy and Roadrunner, but some people just blamed Earth Crisis. I'm not really 'blaming' anyone, most bands progress, and try new things. Sometimes it's great (like Jimmy Eat World's Clarity or Jawbreaker's Dear You) and sometimes it's not.

The new record, when I played it for my friends, earned nicknames like Earth-Crisis-Knot, and Limp Crisisnit, and other silly things. Of course, there is some wisdom in these sarcastic nicknames. Earth Crisis has added melody, in fact, Karl actually sings on most of the album. Of course, the patented growl is still there, but there's a lot of Limp Bizkit-esque rapping.

There's two ways of looking at this new record. One is that it's an exercise in subversion. Take Kid (A) who's a big Limp Bizkit and Slipknot fan. He hears Slither and decides he likes it. Little does he know that he's on his way to hearing there's more to music that yelling mysoginist nonsense, and maybe he looks into straight edge, and decides not to turn into a pothead like his friends. I suppose that would be a cool little trick, but unfortunately, I don't think that's what Earth Crisis is entirely about.

I think this record is simply sanitized, melodic and 'rappy' to appeal to the average metal MTV kid, since there are infinitely more of them than hardcore sXe kids. Of course, that leaves the hardcore sXe kids out to dry, and without any semblence of what they expected, or hoped for, from this new record

For people who didn't want an essay about this new record, I can summarize the album quickly. Sterile, trendy, and radio airplay friendly. Of course, this isn't what I wanted to hear, but maybe it'll make you Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Korn fans stand up and proclaim your newfound sXe-veganism. I suppose that's good.