There are so many different types of Living Sacrifice fans. People who started listening from the beginning, and those who joined somewhere along the way. Fans who praise their experimental phase, those who prefer the -core era, and those who swear by the traditional metal era. Heck, I even know one guy who claims they only released one album (he’s a thrash fan), and all the others were recorded by imposters!
The band has certainly seen a number of different phases, most easily broken down into two main categories (metal and -core) with a few other splinters. Phase I: the metal phase consisted of the first three albums. Phase II: after some member changes, the band changed direction adding some influences of hardcore/metalcore. The problem is, even this is too simplistic. None of the first three albums sound alike, each covering a different shade of heavy metal–thrash on the debut, unique thrash/death on Nonexistent, and straight up death metal on Inhabit (whence comes our song of the day). After they changed gears completely for Reborn (thus starting the -core era), each album continued to evolve the band’s sound, often adding or taking away members to experiment with different percussive textures. Others might argue for a third era as this later phase saw the band getting more experimental.
Everyone has their favorites, of course, and while all of their output is worthy of merit, Inhabit has always grabbed my ears, refusing to let go. It’s got everything–fast leads, crushingly heavy riffs, blastbeats, and just enough atmospheric textures to keep things interesting. Case in point is today’s selection, “Not Beneath” (which, interestingly enough inspired another band enough to take the title as its namesake). Check it out, and let me know which LivSac is your favorite album or era.
Living Sacrifice… where to begin. I would say my favorite album of theirs is “Reborn,” but only because it’s the first one I heard (and I read somewhere that someone’s favorite album by a group tends to be the first one they hear – though of course this is not always true).
I have a lot of good things to say about their first album as well, especially the song “No Grave Concern.” But among their discography – all of which is excellent – it is so very hard to pick an outright favorite.
Yes!! “Inhabit”= deth clasic dat owns secula albums of da genre at dat time, altho da first 3 albums need a propa remasta. I dont think solid state eva remasterd em on da “rereleases” of da erly 2000s. It wud also b cool if “Nonexistent” was rerecorded wit deciiferable vocals by bruce, lol. We also need a worldwide “Ls day”, like pantokrator duz.
I don’t know man, I like the uniqueness of the vox on Nonexistent. Just listened to that album today!