Earth Crisis

Well, they just won't give up, I'll give them that much. Three full-lengths, two EPs and one live album later, much of the hype surrounding these guys has faded, which is nice, because now we can take a minute to listen to them and realise, yes, they are really over-rated. However, this album doesn't really give us a chance to get into that, as it's mainly cover tunes, along with a couple of compilation songs, two demo songs and one newbie. The cover songs start out cool enough, with "Hell Awaits" opening up the album, however, the band stops once the song really gets going, which is actually pretty cool, in an anti-climactic sort of way. Semi-obscure Zep choice "The Wanton Song" is next, and the big grooves sound good when beefed up in hardcore style. "Children of the Grave" closes off the metal portion of the album rather uneventfully before the band does a sort-of-cool cover of "Paint It Black." The hardcore covers get boring I never cared for DYS, the Misfits and the Dead Kennedys the first time around. The originals are standard EC: beefed up, masculine hardcore with a metal production. The track listing is screwed up, but it's not like you won't recognise a Sabbath or Zeppelin song when you hear it.