Earth Crisis - To The Death review

This is one of the most highly anticipated reunion records of the last few years, and Earth Crisis definitely don't disappoint with To The Death. The people at Century Media were kind enough to send us a download of the album, and it's my humble opinion that this is probably the perfect comeback record.
The album opens up like a beast with the track "Against the Current." Leading into an album with a mosh part can be risky, but they pull it off nicely by transitioning into a fast part smoothly and following up with a riff that easily could have been on a Madball record in the mid 90s. As a nearly 30 years old straight edge nerd, it's nice to hear a combination of straight/straight edge a good ten times in the opening track.
Up next is the track that has been posted to the band's myspace page, "To Ashes." It's this song that gave me high hopes for the new record in general. The chorus chant of "every meth lab burned" is sure to become a new live staple for them.
Unfortunately, the download didn't include lyrics, but the third track sounds like the albums first foray into the topic of animal rights. Titled "So Others Live", it feels like a classic call for animal rights that would have been heard on any number of Earth Crisis records.
The middle chunk of this record is certainly no slouch. With tracks like "Security Threat #1", "Control Through Fear", and "Eye of Babylon", ExC are solidifying themselves as a legitimate contender amongst the current court of heavy hardcore bands.
The album ends itself with the title track, and it's a great ending to a great record. As the song plays out, it ends with "Vegan for life. Vegan to the death!" It's one of those moments in a song that combines a heavy piece of music with a potent enough chant that it makes you want to destroy whatever is sitting near you.Overall, I'd say that Earth Crisis have crafted a magnificent comeback record. A lot of the riffs sound like they could have been on Gomorrah's Season Ends, but they come through so much better because they don't have the mu-metal sounding production that Gomorrah's did. A number of riffs also sound like they could have found their way onto Destroy The Machines, but they take on a slightly different feel on To The Death, because the production of this record makes the chugs sound a bit more punchy than previous ExC records. As a whole, the production is very clean, but isn't so sterile that the songs seem stripped of all their raw power. This is the album that feels like what should have been their natural progression from Breed The Killers.
If Slither left a bad taste in your mouth, as it did with me, give this new record a shot. It comes out on April 20th in Europe, and May 5th in the US via Century Media, and I really don't think you'll be disappointed. If nothing else, maybe this record will at least get some of the lame scenester kids and flat brimmed hat douchebags into something more intelligent and passionate.
Bottom line: Earth Crisis sound pissed again!