Review: Living Sacrifice — Inhabit re-issue
Review – Living Sacrifice – Inhabit (2025 Reissue)
Once upon a time, a long time ago, when yours truly was still in elementary school, the great Living Sacrifice was a death metal band. What a time it must have been, to have been there, to have been able to go see the classic line-up of one of Christian metal’s greatest acts of all time in all their glory. Possessed of an almost nuclear-level of energy that translated into some of the most riveting live performances I’ve yet seen documented in film, Living Sacrifice’s faith and witness to Christ was so inspiring that even in my anti-Christian days, I couldn’t deny that the band impressed me like no other – and that was around the time of The Hammering Process.
As I’ve said before, I’m a D.J.-era fan, 100 per cent. While Reborn is an amazing record (and an incredibly important one), it’s their first three records that fascinate me. But for the longest time, these three records occupied a kind of deuterocanon amongst more canonical works of later years like Reborn and The Hammering Process ,known only to those who were there at the time. Once I had discovered them, there was no looking back.
So it was with great anticipation that I awaited Nordic Mission’s remaster/remix/re-issue of arguably the most well-loved album of the band’s early years – Inhabit. After months of hearing that it was in the works, and after a bit of a delay with some merch (of course, I had to order a shirt of the new album art too), it finally arrived in my mailbox. I felt like Ralphie in A Christmas Story opening up his Red Ryder BB Gun present on Christmas morning.
It was Chris Lee’s review of the original Inhabit that inspired me to apply to write with everyone here at Heaven’s Metal, and there’s not much I can say that can top what he wrote so very well (check his review of the original out here). However, I will attempt to add my own take on the 2025 reissue of the album nonetheless
Nordic Mission’s remasters of both Living Sacrifice and Nonexistent were obvious labours of love, and the job that’s been done on this new version of Inhabit is equally so. Remastered by Living Sacrifice’s own Rocky Gray, I was interested to see if this remaster would be as controversial as the one done on 2022’s reissue of Nonexistent by Demon Hunter’s Jeremiah Scott (for the record, I think his remastering job was nothing short of absolutely stellar). Ok, so let’s dive into it all.
The Music
Just as a refresher: if you are unacquainted with this masterwork of early Christian death metal, prepare yourself for a severe pummelling unlike any other. I’m not sure why the promo sticker on this reissue refers to this as “Florida death metal” – to me, that would be more Nonexistent. Inhabit, to my reckoning, has far more in common with the New York death metal style with its emphasis both on precision percussion akin to Suffocation and Disencumbrance, as well as its Immolation-like guitar work, but to be fair, there’s definitely some Morbid Angel-like sounds going on here too. Any semblance of thrash is practically gone on this one, with the music instead shifting wildly and violently with little warning from brutal death metal blasts to doomy, plodding passages that border on dirge-like. Inhabit’s tone is oppressively dark and ominous, bleak even. It’s music that treats the listener like a steam roller rolling over a paper cup. But for all it’s blunt force trauma effect, it’s an album possessed of an incredible sense of dynamism; at no point does the album lose one’s interest through simple, brutal repetition. Some have or may find D.J.’s bellowed vocal style on here to be somewhat odd or not to their taste, but to me, it’s just another element that makes this album stand out from a plethora of other death metal records at the time, and in hindsight, I think it absolutely works. It’s refreshingly different.
But how does the music sound with its new production job?
Rest assured, the power and impact of this album is still kept intact; in fact, I would say it has only been amplified, an already muscular album fleshed out with even more muscle. The guitars here remain as monolithically chunky as ever, almost unfeelingly industrial in tone, singularly intent on crushing any opposition through militaristic brute force. The overall feel of the new production on this reissue is one of a slight expansion, as well as a bit of a thickening. The effect is a wall of sound, in short. D.J.’s vocals are a bit more buried in the mix rather than right out front, the drums are less sharp and dry, instead being given a beefier, louder and more expansive sound. Everything feels front and centre, giving the music an even more intense feeling of inescapable gloom and punishing sonic violence.
Sadly, the pitch-shifted roars heard on occasion on Inhabit are largely buried in the mix; for me, that massive, terrifying bellow on “In the Shadow” was so perfect, and to here it somewhat buried and subdued into the background as more of an echoed roar from a deep cavern was a bit of a disappointment for me. “Breathing Murder” boasted some Carcass-like (think Reek of Putrefaction) pitch-shifted vocals too, but they’re barely discernible on this new mix. I’m not entirely sure why those epic vocal bits are toned down here, but it’s nitpicking I suppose. My other minor critique is that, while I appreciated the more open and powerful sound of the drums on this remix, I do sort of miss the sharper tone of the original mix.
Still, in the end, the production job is largely fantastic. This is Inhabit given even more muscle, more power, if that were even possible with an album like this.
The Package
The art – that’s what I’m talking about. Permit a brief rant here, but there’s nothing I miss more than classic extreme metal album covers, the kinds done by classic artists like Andreas Marschall, Kristian Wahlin, Troy Dunmire and Kris Verwimp, the kinds that were actually painted and not simply concocted with some AI or computer program. Thankfully, we get just that kind of classic death metal art on this reissue, an incredible depiction of the resurrection of the body that just screams old-school death metal on every level. What’s more you get the downright creepy original cover art in the insert as well, a more subtle yet far more haunting depiction of the same event. Photos of the band, song commentaries, memorabilia pictures and a new write-up by drummer Lance Garvin are included, and for nerds like me who sit and flip through CD booklets over and over, it’s fantastic.
The Verdict
If you’re like me and never got the chance to grab an actual copy of this seminal death metal record, now is the time to do so. It’s got everything the collector could want, the production job is excellent, and let’s be frank – this is a pillar of Christian death metal history, a must-own for anyone who calls themselves a fan of the genre. This one won’t be leaving my CD player for a long time. Here’s hoping that one day D.J. and Jason Truby will come back into the fold for just one more album and release a death metal onslaught the likes the world has not seen since this classic record. One can only hope!
For Fans Of: Immolation (early), Suffocation, Disencumbrance, Entombed (early), Morbid Angel
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