Saint - Crime Scene Earth 2.0SaintCrime Scene Earth 2.0
Retroactive Records – 2010

Just after the release of Hellblade, Saint releases Crime Scene Earth 2.0.  Now this isn’t just the Crime Scene Earth re-packaged and put out for mass consumption.  Here’s a little history lesson for you.  When Crime Scene Earth was recorded, Josh Kramer, vocalist for Saint, was only able to record three of the songs for the album.  This left Richard Lynch, the bassist for Saint, to handle the vocals.  And while Rich is a perfectly capable vocalist, Saint fans could definitely tell that the vocals were different and were “missing their Saint-ness” without Josh on vocals. So, for Crime Scene Earth 2.0, Josh handles the vocals for the entire album.  And fortunately, they didn’t just take out Rich’s vocals from the songs that he sang and replace them with Josh’s vocals.  They actually re-recorded the songs, giving them a freshness to the album.  Songs like “Terror In The Sky” have a bit of a different feel this time with Dee Harrington, guitarist for Saint since Too Late For Living, making some changes to the solos.  And for the songs that were re-recorded, they were completely re-mastered and re-engineered to get them a fuller, richer sound.  The Judas Priest cover “Invader” is a good example of this.  The vocals, guitars, bass and drums are more balanced.  It’s these minor changes to the entire album, along with the vocals of Josh on all of the songs, that make Crime Scene Earth 2.0 a definitely solid release.

[rating:6/7]

Reviewed by Jeff de los Santos