Syracuse, New York’s EARTH CRISIS has always been a serious band, one whose message has been a crucial pillar to its being. Militantly promoting straight-edge and veganism, Earth Crisis had the audacity to be a loud voice for its lifestyle choices and also had the foresight to (properly) fuse metal and hardcore a decade before metalcore became a dirty word. Earth Crisis’ best albums - ‘95’s Destroy The Machines and ‘96’s Gomorrah’s Season Ends - are now enshrined in classic status, and the collective’s break-up in ’01 saw the straight-edge movement’s primary voice (aside from MINOR THREAT, of course) silenced. In the intervening years the members of Earth Crisis were involved in several projects (the most notable of which was melodic hardcore band FREYA), but the group heeded the many calls for a reunion and reformed in 2007, to the delight of its loyal legions. Earth Crisis’ latest record, To The Death, is a lean and mean effort that continues in the group’s metal/hardcore tradition, but emphasizes the band’s guitar-centric approach: these tracks are heavy, to be sure. BW&BK; caught up with Earth Crisis vocalist Karl Buechner before the group’s set at Montreal’s Underworld, the band later that night putting on a solid performance that acted as an effective overview of its storied career.

BW&BK;: Why has Earth Crisis reunited at this point? Why now?

Karl Buechner: “Basically, before Earth Crisis concluded in ’01 we decided that we would get back together when we could and work on a band we had done in the past called PATH OF RESISTANCE. Before Earth Crisis played its last show in Syracuse at Hellfest, we had decided to revive Path. Scott (Crouse, Earth Crisis guitar player) and Dennis (Merrick, Earth Crisis drummer) were moving to California to be with the girls that they had married, who were living out there. They were going to work on a band called ISOLATED. Bulldog (Earth Crisis bass player), Erick (Edwards, Earth Crisis guitar player) and I were working on a band called Freya. So we all moved on together with music in different bands. We wrote the Path Of Resistance record in Erick’s studio in New York, and in Scott’s studio, called The Sweatshop, out in California. We would e-mail parts back and forth and then fly into Buffalo, which is where Dennis lives, and we’d compose the Can’t Stop The Truth album. And it worked well, and Path did some great things. We went to Europe, we played festivals from coast to coast in the US and that showed us that we didn’t all have to live in the same place to do a band. As time went along, seven or eight years later we thought we could probably do the exact same thing with Earth Crisis. We had been getting offers to play shows for a while. We finally thought that a lot had happened with Path and the three Freya releases. And Bulldog had a side-project with the guys from MERAUDER and HATEBREED called RAG MEN. Scott and Dennis released Isolated. So I thought it was a good time to re-visit Earth Crisis. So we played the reunion show which was at the Maryland Metal and Hardcore Festival and when we were practicing the songs in Dennis’ basement, the chemistry was perfect. And we started thinking about doing the band again after we played that show. We figured we’d do it at some point in the future, but technology came in to save the day when it comes to being able to do Earth Crisis. It’s a little more difficult than it was in past then when we were all in Syracuse; we’re all scattered around the US right now. Bulldog lives in North Carolina, Erick and I are in Syracuse, Dennis in Buffalo and Scott in California. But we’ve taken the time to write a new album, we recorded it and we’ve been to South America and Europe and we’re on our second US tour now.”

BW&BK;: Earth Crisis was one of the pioneers in terms of fusing metal and hardcore, beginning the process during the early ‘90s. At this point in ‘09, both metal and hardcore are at all real peaks. It seems like a good time to come back and show everyone who the forefathers are. Do you feel like you’ve come back to a scene you may have had a hand in creating?

KB: “For us, we’re back because this is a band we believe in and when we were out with Freya and Path, kids kept asking us when we were bringing Earth Crisis back. It’s the right time and I’m glad we’re on Century Media.”

BW&BK;: What are the goals for Earth Crisis at this point? What does the band want to accomplish?

KB: “The goals are always the same, to reach new people with our message of kindness towards animals through veganism and to show the benefits of the drug-free, straight-edge way of life. I think that hardcore is bigger than it ever was and I think it’s more unified with the metal scene than in the past, and there’s all kinds of new territory to play in. We’re on a world tour for the new album: we went to South America, we’re finishing this US tour, and after this we go to Australia, then another European tour, then Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia.”

BW&BK;: We spoke on the phone while you were doing interviews for Freya, and I also spoke to Erick on the phone during those interviews. Erick mentioned that there was a different sense while you guys were touring for Freya. He mentioned that those Freya tours felt like there was a little more freedom: they weren’t about a message or going on the road on this big crusade for veganism and straight-edge. How does it feel to be back in Earth Crisis, spreading those messages at every show again?

KB: “Nothing changed as far as forwarding vegan and straight-edge goes, because we worked on Path Of Resistance the whole time. I think when it comes to a feeling of freedom, what Erick was probably trying to describe was how, musically, Freya is an experiment. People expect very, very aggressive dark music with Earth Crisis. With Freya, we can do anything. And we’re continuing to work on that band. We have 12 new songs, and we’re probably going to record this summer.”

BW&BK;: There was a motto that Earth Crisis sort of lived by for a while, it was “There Is A War, Straight-Edge Is The Weapon.” What are your thoughts on that?

KB: “I think that if you look at what’s going on with the news combined with the entertainment industry - whether it’s films in Hollywood or bands or ‘artists’ that are promoted with a million-dollar push from Time Warner - you’ll see that there’s imagery and a type of message that’s sent to society. That message is very self-destructive. It glorifies drug and alcohol use and it glorifies promiscuity. It glorifies violence as conflict resolution when there’s inter-personal conflicts, and I think that straight-edge ultimately is a way to step away from all that.”

BW&BK;: The new record is one of the band’s most metal efforts. Was there a feeling that Earth Crisis had to be a bit more metal this time out given that the band finds itself on Century Media?

KB: “Century Media, like Victory Records, gave us complete artistic control. We have Path Of Resistance in which we’re purely hardcore and Earth Crisis has always been very metal. I think rather than changing anything we’ve returned to our roots with the music that we wrote for the new record.”

BW&BK;: How has the aggressive music landscape changed since Earth Crisis’ departure? Where does the band fit in now?

KB: “I think that we’ve always been an odd band. We’re not worried about fitting in. We write our music and our lyrics to suit our own personal music tastes and the words reflect the things we’re interested in and passionate about. We put it out there. Thankfully some people do agree with it and can identify with or, to an extent, be entertained by it. That’s great and we’re lucky.”

BW&BK;: How would you feel if someone told you it’s more important to focus on human rights rather than animal rights? That animal suffering should only be dealt with once all human suffering on the planet had ceased?

KB: “I would say that a person who would come up and say something like that to a band member of Earth Crisis is not really familiar with our history. And if they read the lyrics to Breed The Killers or Gomorrah’s Season Ends or Slither, they can see that we’ve touched on every aspect of human rights and human struggles that there are out there.”

BW&BK;: Straight-edge’s popularity continually fluctuates. What do you think of the current straight-edge scene?

KB: “I think we’re at a great point. There are people that are in their 20s and 30s, and even people approaching their 40s, that have obviously stood the test of time. And there’s a lot of great bands, too. Bands like TYRANT, ONE JUSTICE, SACRED PLEDGE, BLACKOUT RAGE, KINGDOM, ABSENCE, NUEVA ETHICA, LOYAL TO THE GRAVE, THE WAR, to name a few… it’s all over the world. Straight-edge is global now.”

BW&BK;: What was the influence of Minor Threat on Earth Crisis? Is it as incalculable as people might think it was, given that straight-edge is at the core of both bands?

KB: “We love Minor Threat. The Boston bands were always our favourites, though.”

BW&BK;: Bands like S.S.D.?

KB: “Yeah, S.S.D. and D.Y.S. We actually did a D.Y.S. cover, ‘City To City’, on Last Of The Sane. What Ian MacKaye started changed our lives, but I think the original wave of straight-edge in some ways was disastrous when you think of how many people walked away from it. Some of the originators walked away, but Ian’s still loyal. He gets 200 percent respect from us.”

BW&BK;: Have you ever spoken to Ian about all this? Has he ever approached you about how you brought his ideas and ethic to a new generation of hardcore fans during the ‘90s?

KB: “He stayed at one of the singers’ of Path Of Resistance’s house when FUGAZI played years ago. We had a great time.”

BW&BK;: What are your thoughts on one of Earth Crisis’ anthems, ‘Gomorrah’s Season Ends’, all these years later? It’s still a powerful song that has the ability to really affect people.

KB: “It’s amazing to me to see kids - all these years later - who are adults now that still love this band. To see our lyrics or logos tattooed on people is amazing. It’s cool to be out on the road and meet guys who are 17 or 18 or 19 who grew up with our records but never saw us live until now.”