Living Sacrifice
Conceived In Fire
Solid State Records
While Living Sacrifice have been around in one form or another for the last thirteen years, their brand of extreme Christian metal never really did all that much for me. Their last album, 2000's The Hammering Process was good, but still failed to ignite anything above my curious interest. That has all changed!
Conceived In Fire, their sixth album, amply displays exactly what the band is capable of, and truly delivers. The death metal element still appears at the start of 'Imminent War', but takes a backseat while the band stretch the song writing into something more digestible. 'Symbiotic' is one of the defining moments on the album, and conjures up the image of Testament with the heavy riffing.
The album is pretty relentless, but there are moments of melodic death metal. 'The Poisoning' is one of those moments, with its irresistible "All the world is for sale!" chant. Another such moment comes in the closing track 'Reach For The Sky' with its spoken word passage. After the quiet gentle melodic tones of the instrumental 'Into Again', the band do an about face with the speed and aggression of 'Separation'. There's a slight nod to Slayer with the lead break, and 'Distrust' and 'The Martyr' features the most powerful drum sounds Living Sacrifice have recorded to date.
It would be fair to say that Living Sacrifice have been honing their skills and are getting better as each album is released, but that would be only half the story. Producer Barry Poynter has given the band a heavier, meatier and cleaner sound, while the legendary Andy Sneap has done an amazing job with the mix.
The band must also be given credit for ditching the shit album covers that have adorned their previous albums, and using Travis Smith. As one of the masters of modern art, Travis has provided surreal images for Devin Townsend, Opeth, Nevermore and countless others in recent times.
The album is pretty relentless, but there are moments of melodic death metal. 'The Poisoning' is one of those moments, with its irresistible "All the world is for sale!" chant. Another such moment comes in the closing track 'Reach For The Sky' with its spoken word passage. After the quiet gentle melodic tones of the instrumental 'Into Again', the band do an about face with the speed and aggression of 'Separation'. There's a slight nod to Slayer with the lead break, and 'Distrust' and 'The Martyr' features the most powerful drum sounds Living Sacrifice have recorded to date.
It would be fair to say that Living Sacrifice have been honing their skills and are getting better as each album is released, but that would be only half the story. Producer Barry Poynter has given the band a heavier, meatier and cleaner sound, while the legendary Andy Sneap has done an amazing job with the mix.
The band must also be given credit for ditching the shit album covers that have adorned their previous albums, and using Travis Smith. As one of the masters of modern art, Travis has provided surreal images for Devin Townsend, Opeth, Nevermore and countless others in recent times.
Living Sacrifice has finally created an album worth shelling out your hard earned cash for.
Fore more information on Living Sacrifice, check out - https://www.facebook.com/livingsacrifice.
© Justin Donnelly.
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