The idea for this post has been kicking around in my head for months but I have never had time to sit down and write it. The idea would creep into my head while I was running and I would think about what I would say and what points I would make. Your asking what the hell am I talking about? Whats so important? Over the last few years I have met tons of young kids that tell me they never checked out Earth Crisis and that is shocking to me.
I am going to start at the beginning and take this back to when I was a much younger man when at the age of 15 I became straightedge. I thought it made the most sense for me and was a good positive direction for my life that coincidentally already mirrored the choices I was making. Around the time I was turning 18 I heard "Firestorm" for the first time and the whole world changed. I am not kidding it was that important this was the first time a straightedge band made me rethink everything and actually talked about things that mattered. This was the start of seeing a bigger picture, of realizing that straightedge was not the end but the beginning. This is where I realized that for me being straightedge was part of attempting in my small ways to make the world around me a better place. These guys wrote the soundtrack for the tremendous personal changes I would go through over the coming years. As I grew older so did Earth Crisis and as they grew their lyrical and musical ideas gelled into a more cohesive force that constantly inspired me along my path into adulthood. So to put it bluntly if you like Seventh Dagger than you HAVE to like Earth Crisis because if there had been no Earth Crisis this label would not exist.
Earth Crisis set the stage for all the things I would do with this label. Youth of Today, Bold, Project X these guys would have never inspired me to do anything. What inspired me and continues to inspire me about Earth Crisis is their steadfast adherence to their ideologies. They have never been afraid so say what they think, they have never been afraid to try something new musically. These guys are legitimately daring artists who have never let the activism side of what they do fade into the background. Earth Crisis never bored me with trite horseshit like songs about being stabbed in the back or being positive they talked about real life issues, things that mattered in a world so fucked up it's almost incomprehensible. So you can like all those old bands if you want thats fine but just know those bands didn't give a shit then and they don't give a shit now. If you are concerned with superficial garbage go pay Ray Cappo to lie to you from the stage at a Youth of Today reunion. I will pass and support the dudes that talked intelligently about straightedge, actually lived it on and off stage and never backed down from their beliefs.
If your a young person and you have not paid attention to Earth Crisis and you like this label I am telling you to do yourself a favor and go get everything. I don't mean download it, buy it, read the lyrics, take in the art, these guys created something to big to simply download. Go download the flavor of the week nonsense from whatever fly by night label everyone is talking about but pay real money and get the real thing from these guys. These dudes are the most important thing to happen to straightedge. When they release something support it! They are the only band I can think of that actually has a solid line up that has stayed straightedge for this long. This is a band comprised of the real thing. Comprised of men in their late 30's and up that never gave in that still stand by their message after all these years. Earth Crisis has been the catalyst for so many people I have met in my life that have actually enacted real change and done positive things in this world. These guys wrote the words that inspired people to take real action, to go past simply talking about things. Everything I have done with this label was inspired by Earth Crisis and continues to be inspired by them. So even if you never heard them if you like Seventh Dagger and /or the bands on it then Earth Crisis has touched your life to because none of us would be here without them.
All the bands you love will come and go. For some only time will tell what their dedication will be to these ideas but I can assure you of one thing. Long after the hero from the flavor of the month band everyone jocked is warming a seat in a bar somewhere getting plastered Earth Crisis will still be 5 grown men who are straightedge and vegan. To the Death.
