Alright, in this weekend's collection post, I'm going with Vegan Edge bands from Syracuse NOT named Earth Crisis. In some cases here we're talking about predecessors, in others peers. All with some semblance of that trademark Upstate crunchy chugga chugga sound and off the charts angry animal rights/environmentally conscious lyrics.
First up is Framework, which was 4/5 of Earth Crisis pre-ExC. Really solid mid tempo hardcore that was actually pretty advanced for the very early '90's. To my ears you can hear some Hardline Records influences (Raid, Vegan Reich) but it's still its own deal.
Next, the Framework members not in ExC, most notably Shane Durgee, formed Gatekeeper and took that sound way farther. Gatekeeper did only a demo and a few shows but made a huge impact with their much more up front metal influence and in your face Hardline imagery/logos/samples. The sound quality is good on this for being a hastily recorded demo and they are one of those bands you always wish you had heard more of.
Separately, there were bands influenced by Earth Crisis' All Out War and Firestorm that formed and played around Syracuse during the '94-96 era. One of the best were Soulstice, who were fairly well known due to their signature group shout chorus parts, dive bombs and overall metal direction. "Nothing But Despair" is a perfect example of this scene completely departing from a traditional hardcore sound.
As a bonus I'm throwing in another Soulstice track, "Turn Away" off their Dark Hour EP. It is of less quality than their later stuff, but since this is SLAP, I couldn't neglect it due to the sheer brilliance of the clothing choices the band members wore in the promo photo. Those red jeans sum up this era more than a million words could.
And as usual, I saved my favorite for the end, which in this case will be Green Rage. Just ultra militant Syracuse chugging perfection. Get the hair bleach, neck beads and messenger bags full of pamphlets/vegan Soft Batch, this one is good to go.