Feature: Living Sacrifice – Albums Ranked From ‘Worst’ to First

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about Living Sacrifice, it’s that their albums and the different styles heard on them elicit strong opinions. Most love their metalcore era; some (like myself) swear by the so-called “D.J. era” of thrash and death metal; I’ve even noticed a small contingent that will only listen to the first album and nothing else! 

Be that as it may, Living Sacrifice remain one of the pillars of the Christian metal world, hugely influential, and much loved by so many fans of heavy music (who are all probably like me and desperately hoping for a new album with D.J. back in the fold!). But their chameleon-like shifting in style over the years makes coming up with a ranking list of their discography a tricky task that will inevitably (have) some in agreement and others scratching their heads. Is there a bad Living Sacrifice album? Simple answer – no. Is there a worst? In lists like this, there has to be, sadly. It all depends on one’s tastes, and my tastes will probably be pretty clear by the time you finish reading this. But let it be said that Living Sacrifice are top-class in every way. Living Sacrifice was the first Christian band to ever make me rethink the whole “Christians playing metal” concept, and planted a seed of the gospel in me when probably no one else could get close to doing so.

With that in mind, I embark upon my own personal ranking of the Living Sacrifice discography, from “worst” to first. Let’s begin!

• Ghost Thief

Awesome cover art notwithstanding, I find myself unable to get into this one very much. It’s very similar in approach to The Infinite Order, but it lacks the oomph that that album had in spite of its rather eclectic approach. Musically, there’s nothing but sheer talent on display here, as per usual with this band. It’s just that the album feels like a step back in terms of its energy and delivery. The songs, as far as modern metalcore goes, are solid, and for those who dig the brighter moments within In Flames’ patchy post-Clayman career, there’s lot to enjoy here. But I find myself missing their signature explosive energy all the same. That, and this one just doesn’t feel as heavy as previous efforts, no matter what style they were playing at the time. I’m sure fans of modern metalcore acts like As I Lay Dying, Lamb of God and Killswitch Engage will find lots to enjoy on here, but for me (as someone who is largely not a big metalcore guy at all), it’s the one album that just doesn’t grab me.

• Conceived in Fire

Conceived in Fire brought a return, to a degree, of the band’s more brutal leanings in their past. Bruce Fitzhugh’s ferocious vocal delivery took on a deeper tone on this one, and for me, it’s always a welcome thing. Unfortunately, Conceived in Fire, despite its heaviness, feels like The Hammering Process Part 2, a re-visiting of the style of its predecessor but with a muddier production and not much in the way of the innovation that the band had probably by this point become known for. Still, this is a bruiser, and like I said, there really are no bad Living Sacrifice albums. Such is the nature of the beast when it comes to these lists.

• The Infinite Order

The all-dressed chip in the band’s discography. Living Sacrifice here threw a whole ton of influences and sounds into the mix and somehow made it work. I can hear Bolt Thrower’s “The IVth Crusade” on “Unfit to Live,” Corpsegrinder-era Cannibal Corpse on “Organized Lie,” Antestor on “Overkill Exposure” and In Flames all over the place. What makes this album work so well is its impressive, clear production, and the fact that the band injected some melodeath on here without feeling like they were lightening up too much. The Infinite Order plays like a record of what might be all of their influences over the years, and makes it work. A fresh return after a far too long hiatus.

• The Hammering Process

As I mentioned above, few albums proved as influential or memorable in my life as this one. Living Sacrifice had a sound that was of the time on this one, and yet transcended it entirely. It possessed the industrial rhythms of Fear Factory and the tribal drumming of Sepultura and Soulfly, but sounded far heavier and more brazenly raw than what those bands were up to at the time. What shone for me was the intensity and the surgical precision of it all; sure, Meshuggah did the whole djent thing too, but Living Sacrifice came off less weird, less synthetic, less something. This was organic. It was powerful. It hit like a dump truck. And when I first heard The Hammering Process as a young man, I was blown away. Their live show around this time was insane – the lead Bruce Fitzhugh wielded his guitar like it some kind of industrial power tool, and it sounded like one too. And though The Hammering Process lacks the barely-controlled energy of Reborn, it focuses the sound of its predecessor into an industrial-strength rhythm machine.

• Inhabit

Living Sacrifice’s Inhabit is arguably the band’s darkest record. The half-rotten, churning noise of Nonexistent is replaced by a sonic palette of even darker colours, ones of bludgeoning violence and haunting melancholic passages resulting in an even more intense listening experience. The riffs exude a kind of ominous foggy darkness, and D.J.’s guttural yells cut through like a man shouting in defiance and desperation. Few death metal albums sound like Inhabit does, thanks to its unique vocal style (though there is a little similarity to Nicke Andersson’s as heard on Entombed’s Clandestine), hammering drums, and sense of haunting atmosphere, all stitched together into a Frankenstein’s monster of murky, pulverizing riffs and pitch-shifted roars. This album is as subtle as being jackhammered into solid concrete, and yet it’s possessed of the same dynamism heard on their other records; for every “Departure” there’s a “Not Beneath”. The production here is mercilessly thick and chunky, the riffs hitting with brute force and a sense of barely constrained power. Perhaps the band took a bit of a break and re-evaluated their approach after this one simply because it was just that intense, to the point of exhausting the band. Whatever the case, it remains in most minds the band at their absolute heaviest. Not for the faint of heart, but one of the most unique death metal records around.

• Reborn

Few bands outside of Carcass could survive such a tremendous stylistic change as Living Sacrifice made on this album. With Carcass, however, one could hear it coming; they didn’t simply switch from Reek of Putrefaction to Heartwork but progressed gradually more and more into a structured and melodic death metal style. But with Living Sacrifice, the change was an almost total about-face from the furious death metal of just a few years ago, and it worked on every level, even if not everybody liked it (and though I love it, I really, really wish they’d go back to death metal, but I digress). Reborn was the album that established Living Sacrifice more in the mainstream consciousness; ironic, considering how absolutely raw and in-your-face this record is. Before metalcore became all about copping In Flames and At the Gates riffs, this album for all time showed what metalcore really should be all about. Living Sacrifice here perfect the style, and I’ve yet to here another metalcore record that even remotely comes close to this. “Reject” features the breakdown to end all breakdowns, and just in case you forgot that Living Sacrifice once played some absolutely rancorous death metal, “Liar” is here to remind you of that. Bruce Fitzhugh’s vocals are cathartic and powerful, and sound angry without succumbing the self-loathing tones one would often hear in nu metal bands at the time. Reborn could have easily turned out to be a record showcasing a band succumbing to the times and the current trends (nu metal, groove metal, hardcore influences, etc.); instead, it rose above all of it, taking the band’s trademark fury and energy and infusing it into a sonic approach that paid homage to its past while simultaneously doing something entirely new, stripped-down and raw. Truly, a band reborn. 

• Living Sacrifice

Living Sacrifice’s explosive debut is like nothing else in their discography, as it’s a full-blown thrash record. Back in the day, I used to play Slayer’s Reign in Blood to the point of nausea, and I simply couldn’t get enough of it. Now, I find myself enjoying this one in the same way and for the same reasons, but also because it offers so much more in terms of energy, groove, and above all, impact. While Living Sacrifice definitely take a huge cue from Slayer, they infuse the blinding assaults with a dynamic sensibility, refusing to be content with simply blasting along to a short two-minute end. Tracks like “Internal Unrest” and “No Grave Concern” aren’t afraid to slow things down a little without losing any sense of power or impact. That said, it’s tracks like “The Prodigal,” “Anorexia Spiritual” and the total masterclass thrash of “Second Death” that elevate this album to classic status. It’s a blazing wild ride that slams into the listener like a precision missile strike, a headbanger’s dream, and the sound of a band loaded with talent and barely-contained energy. Though Living Sacrifice would never replicate this sound again, it remains one of the most exciting, riveting metal debuts I’ve ever heard.

• Nonexistent

I know, I know. It has a spotty history of botched production jobs, frustrations in the studio, and all the rest. But after its rebirth in 2022 thanks to Nordic Mission’s remastering and remixing job, Nonexistent was given a whole new life. Channelling the most horrific elements of death metal at the time, Living Sacrifice here gave birth to one of the most filthy death metal records in existence. Much hay has been made over D.J.’s “zombie” vocals on this one, but listen to some early Obituary, Morgoth or Pestilence records, and you’ll find that his unearthly howls on this one are in good company. What separates Nonexistent from other records of its time is just how down and dirty it is in its approach, and yet how it is somehow able to be so pulverizingly heavy. Everything about this record is foreboding, violent and dark, lurching forward with a menacing groove before tenderizing the listener with blastbeats, guitar solos that sound more like Fitzhugh and Truby are ripping the strings off their instruments, and D.J.’s searing, otherworldly screams. Despite its troubled birth, Nonexistent to me remains one of the greatest death metal records of all time by one of the greatest and most influential Christian acts to ever form.

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