Minneapolis' most crushing metalcore band are finally back with a new album and a new line up. After a few years on hiatus, Andy Hart and Karl Hensel, both from the recently defunct hardcore band Holding On, have joined Martyr A.D. on vocals and drums respectively. One of my biggest music related pet peeves is when a band I like switches vocalists. In many cases, the switch ultimately works out for the better, but on the whole I often feel like it is not the same band I once fell in love with. My second music pet peeve is when the singer from a band I love joins another band as a replacement. With that being said, this record successfully calmed any fears and skepticism I had upon hearing of the vocalist switch. On Earth as it is in Hell picks up where The Human Condition in Twelve Fractions left off in many ways. It still has a lot of the Meshuggah influence and the technical riffing, but they've also incorporated a bit more of the At the Gates style melody to fill out their sound. The record starts out with a slow and sludgy intro then quickly bleeds into the opening track, "Bring Out Your Dead." The first five seconds of the song set the precedent for the entire record as far as I'm concerned because it's non-stop after that. "Bring Out Your Dead" is total Slayer worship in the most respectful way possible. The drumming is as relentless as the riffs are technical and to my surprise and excitement Andy Hart doesn't miss a beat on the mic. For the rest of the thirty-minute album, it continues on this way until the final note of "The Dead (Reprise)" outro rings out.
For those who were worried that Martyr A.D. might lose their grip on a scene that they so tightly held in the palm of their hand in 2001, you need not worry. I think that On Earth as it is in Hell will please old Martyr listeners as well as the new ones they will acquire because of their new home on Victory Records. With metal-core going downhill so quickly in the past few years it's nice to see that some bands still have what it takes (without the gimmicks) to measure up to all the tight pants, "Mosh" hoodie wearing emo-metal bands that dominate that scene and make hardcore look so embarrassing.
