Rank the Living Sacrifice Albums

Here we go again:

1. Living Sacrifice 

One of the best albums Slayer never made. It shreds from beginning to end. If they had kept this sound, they’d be one of my all-time favorite bands.

2. Inhabit

Solid death metal beginning to show some metalcore leanings. The vocals are a little goofy, but I prefer them to what was to come. Good album.

3. Nonexistent 

Good death metal that I rank slightly behind Inhabit, mainly because the vocals are largely unintelligible moaning that seems to have little regard for the rhythm. The music is overall killer, though.

4. Reborn 

I have a hard time making it through this in one sitting, and it’s far too metalcore for my taste, but it’s still a solid album. Reborn Empowered and Reject are enough to rank it here, but none of it is bad in the slightest.

5. Ghost Thief

I find this more compelling than anything since Reborn.

6. The others. I find the other 3 too samey and uninteresting overall, although there are songs I do like (e.g. Bloodwork, Symbiotic).

Overall, I find LS a frustrating band, primarily because their debut was SO GOOD and they never returned to that sound. I would be a bigger fan than I am if they even stayed with death metal. Their metalcore stuff is exceptionally well done, but it’s not my style.

Living Sacrifice
Inhabit
Nonexistent
Reborn (I never loved this one, but it's grown on me a little.)
everything else

Living Sacrifice 
(Slayer for Christians, awesome debut!)

The Infinite Order
(A nice balance of groove and thrash)

Ghost Thief
(Same as the Infinite Order, but slightly more modern)

The Hammering Process
(Very heavy and percussive)

Reborn
(Awesome musically, the vocals are a bit strained and forced)

Inhabit
(I love the intensity, but the vocals are forced and don’t match the music)

Conceived in Fire
(Well done, but boring)

Nonexistent 
(Great musically, but the vocals are unbelievably terrible)

Living Sacrifice - S/T

I lose interest after that until....

Living Sacrifice - In Memoriam 

(mainly because 2 of the 3 new songs they recorded for this are close to being throwbacks to their old thrash style).

As for everything else in their catalog - they are really great at what they do but it just doesn't interest me musically.

1. Hammering Process.
2. Reborn.
3. s/t
4. Conceived in Fire
5. Ghost Thief.

big gap (due mainly to the vocals)

6. Inhabit.
7. Non-existent.

I don't have The Infinite Order

#1 S/T
..
..
..
#2 (Distant #2) Ghost Thief. At least some interesting groove and the vocals are less grating than all the others. You can have the rest. Unintelligible screaming is not an additional instrument and serves no purpose other than to destroy anything good going in musically. Add a different vocalist to albums like Reborn and they could have perhaps been awesome. Guess we will never know, until...

They return to their roots and release a thrash album to celebrate 30 years!

Non-Existent. 

Inhabit.

1. S/T. I never listened to secular music so did not know it sounded similar to Slayer but I sure liked this record a lot. It's right up there at the top with the finest offerings of the likes of Believer, Deliverance, Tourniquet and Vengeance Rising. A bona fide classic.

...

I only listened to the rest of their catalogue recently due to a prolonged absence from the Christian metal scene. I was surprised to see where LS had ended up. Their foray into death metal was not a good idea (what's it with those vocals, honestly?). As for their metalcore phase, it's good musicianship and quite intense but somehow their new sound does not really click with me. If I had to pick one of their later albums as a favorite it would probably be The Infinite Order, for that great song Love Forgives. The idea to make a metalcore track out of 1 Cor. 13 is hilarious but somehow it works and sounds great.

Ill start mine by still not understanding how LS is considered metalcore. Ive listened to alot of metalcore and LS is so different to me when up against xDeathstarX, For Today, Gideon, War of Ages, Those Who Fear, Nothing But Blood etc......

I always looked at them as forging a new sound. Groove Death Metal with tribal drumming.

1. Inhabit: Love DJs vocals on this, they are so haunting a fresh approach and just great death metal overall.

2. S/T: Slayer clone yes but great thrash

3. Reborn: A great comeback after losing DJ and the start of something new in metal

4a. Ghost Thief: Great Death Metal

4b. Infinite Order

5. The Circle of Dust Remixes from Metamorphosis.  I loved CoD early stuff and when he remixed the 5 songs from Non Existent wow cool stuff

6. Non Existent. When it came out this was number 1 for me. Finally someone that competed with the big boys of secular death metal. Listening to it now I cant get past how bad the vocals are and man what if DJ had the same approach as Inhabit it would have been a classic in secular circles as well. I was excited to read that at one point DJ wanted to rerecord the vocal tracks and release that but it didnt happen.


Never Owned Conceived in Fire or Hammering Process but my brother did. If my memory serves me I liked them but not as much as the others when I look back.

I always looked at them as forging a new sound. Groove Death Metal with tribal drumming.

Didn't Sepultura kick this whole thing off?

Temple of Blood wrote:

I always looked at them as forging a new sound. Groove Death Metal with tribal drumming.

Didn't Sepultura kick this whole thing off?

Well I wanted to make that example but thought I would get to much flak since they dont sound very similar, to me they are a little more Soulfly then Sepultura but close.

My biggest thing is I dont hear them as metalcore

mothy wrote:Ill start mine by still not understanding how LS is considered metalcore. Ive listened to alot of metalcore and LS is so different to me when up against xDeathstarX, For Today, Gideon, War of Ages, Those Who Fear, Nothing But Blood etc......

Well you can call them deathcore - that might be more accurate - but either way they are definitely "core" at this point.

That said, I am listening to "Ghost Thief" now and it is a bit more palatable than I originally gave it credit for.  
Maybe at some point I will re-check some of the other albums, but in small doses, as after awhile all the yelling gives me a headache...

Constantine wrote:

mothy wrote:Ill start mine by still not understanding how LS is considered metalcore. Ive listened to alot of metalcore and LS is so different to me when up against xDeathstarX, For Today, Gideon, War of Ages, Those Who Fear, Nothing But Blood etc......

Well you can call them deathcore - that might be more accurate - but either way they are definitely "core" at this point.

I still disagree but that's me

mothy wrote:

Constantine wrote:

mothy wrote:Ill start mine by still not understanding how LS is considered metalcore. Ive listened to alot of metalcore and LS is so different to me when up against xDeathstarX, For Today, Gideon, War of Ages, Those Who Fear, Nothing But Blood etc......

Well you can call them deathcore - that might be more accurate - but either way they are definitely "core" at this point.

I still disagree but that's me

I also don't think they're deathcore.

I think they're whatever Machine Head is.

Temple of Blood wrote:

mothy wrote:

Constantine wrote:

mothy wrote:Ill start mine by still not understanding how LS is considered metalcore. Ive listened to alot of metalcore and LS is so different to me when up against xDeathstarX, For Today, Gideon, War of Ages, Those Who Fear, Nothing But Blood etc......

Well you can call them deathcore - that might be more accurate - but either way they are definitely "core" at this point.

I still disagree but that's me

I also don't think they're deathcore.

I think they're whatever Machine Head is.

Hmm nevber thought of that one but if you mix them and Soulfly together thats about as close as you could get to their sound

Groove metal?

Pethead wrote:Groove metal?

Groove/Thrash/Death Metal with some (seems to be fading) tribal influences in the drumming

Temple of Blood wrote:


I also don't think they're deathcore.

I think they're whatever Machine Head is.

^I can see that.  I think it's hard to truly peg them though, they have some stylistic variations.  Wikipedia and other articles describe them alternately as "Christian metal, death metal, thrash metal, groove metal, hardcore punk, metalcore, and grindcore."

In listening to Ghost Thief, I would agree it is not really metalcore, more like hardcore groove metal.   The last song "Despair" is even a return to Slayer-style thrash.   I can't speak for the other albums since it's been awhile since I listened to them, but if they are similar then I guess the metalcore / deathcore label would not be the most accurate.   But there are certainly metalcore and deathcore elements here and there in the songs.  But many metalcore bands also list them as an influence, so something's there.

Not sure why it bugs me so much so sorry, metalcore is so generic, no solos   guitar or drum, maybe the vocal delivery is more "core" sopunding but LS has a sound that is so hard to narrow down. The Wikipedia description is probably the closest ....they are almost every harder genre all in one.

I do prefer LS over almost every metalcore band (Demon Hunter being an exception). 

Let’s call them “wasted potential metal” since they could’ve been one of the best thrash bands around. 🤪

I'm so glad that metalcore has diminished so much in popularity. I wonder if anyone will be clamoring for reunions of those "great" bands.

Temple of Blood wrote:I'm so glad that metalcore has diminished so much in popularity.  I wonder if anyone will be clamoring for reunions of those "great" bands.

I hope not! They had their time and place and I liked it for decent amount of time.

Chameleon-core

On a somewhat unrelated note, they should've kept the original cover for Inhabit.

Pethead wrote:On a somewhat unrelated note, they should've kept the original cover for Inhabit.

Amen!