Living Sacrifice

Item: Nonexistent
Author: Spiny Norman

Nonexistent

(1992)

Reviewed by Spiny Norman

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Label R.E.X. MusicHeaven's Metal #39January/February 1993

death metal grindcore thrash metal

Totally brutal! One listen to cut #2, the title track, and you know you've got something special here, with lightning fast double rhythms. The leads on top of the rhythms here have that cool wah-wah effect. The lead-off cut, "Enthroned," features a flurry of sound interspersed with some very tasteful acoustic guitar picking. This acoustic touch welds the first two songs together (along with the intro). It's one of the wildest worship tunes ever. The vocals, of course, seem to be nothing more than the last few agonizing screams of a dying vampire--but hey, that's progress, right? You can fly through this disc (of 40 minutes and 25 seconds) and realize that you haven't picked up a single word uttered by D.J. in his guttural death/grindcore vocal style. "Atonement" is probably the standout cut here. It's extremely heavy. It reminds me of Metallica's "wall of crunch" sound. The chorus of "Atonement, atonement" is delivered creatively with D.J. starting the first syllable as one word and "ment" as another. Good stuff... "Haven of Blasphemy" is a roaring song with all the attitude that this subject conjures--lots of judgement (death by guitars, if you will). The drum sound was tuned in well. The snare sounds tight, like a plastic drum; the high-hat is nice 'n' crisp and the kick drums are solid. By segue-ing songs by bumping them up next to each other (like "To Nothing" into "Void of Expression"), this makes them sound like one song with a rest and time change. Many other songs have lots of acoustic intros and outros, which seems to weld this 9-song album together as one suite. The rhythms throughout are very convincing (ie. heavy and catchy enough to send your neck into spontaneous hyperextension). These Mountain Dew drinkers deliver a performance fast enough to consider outlawing caffeine.