Register Forgot login?

© 2002-2024
Encyclopaedia Metallum

Privacy Policy

Living Sacrifice > The Hammering Process > Reviews
Living Sacrifice - The Hammering Process

The Hammering Process - 82%

Perplexed_Sjel, December 17th, 2007

It's been several years since I could call myself a metalcore fan. At the age of 15, I was introduced to a brand of music completely unknown to me, metal. I wasn't much of a music fan in my youth. I was always too busy for music, but as i've got older, i've made time for it. Nowadays, I listen to music compulsively. I find it hard to live a day where music isn't a major theme. No matter what i'm doing, music is usually involved in some way or form. So, at the age of 15 I was introduced to a few metal bands and I liked what I heard. I started doing a bit of research because of the initial interest and I came across bands like Converge, Living Sacrifice and Zao. Hardcore, or metalcore bands if you desire, that any angst ridden teenager could get into with ease. That was part of the appeal of the genre. I was angry, therefore the music I listened to needed to be angry too.


This is an element of Living Sacrifice that really appealed to me. I'm not a Christian, nor do I follow any religion, so the fact that this was a Christian band didn't deter me. I decided a long time ago not to buy into any one religion, but instead, I would leave myself open to anything and everything. To this very day I have stuck to that and it works perfectly well for me. To me, to hear Christian theme music portrayed in such an aggressive manner was surprising. Although i'm not religious, I went to religious schools all my life because apparently, they provide a better education for the young. At each of my schools, they preached about good will to all men, treating people with respect and that anger wasn't necessary.


Well, Living Sacrifice breathed a new lease of life into the religion that in truth, a load of shit, in my eyes. Living Sacrifice portray their Christian lives in a manner that any metal fan could appreciate. It's harsh, it's aggressive and it's unafraid to let go of the shackles of religion, and produce something new and exciting. As you may have noticed, Living Sacrifice aren't a one track band. They take influences from both the death and thrash genres. The sheer aggression is where both genres really take shape.


Generally, the major turn-off with metalcore is the vocals. However, Bruce Fitzhugh is a really good performer. His vocals aren't incredibly original to the genre, but they're performed to a top level that you cannot deny their influence upon the music. The aggression factor is important to Living Sacrifice and, in turn, important to the audience. 'The Hammering Process' is edge-of-your-seat material. It's in-your-face, but not preachy. The vocals have such control over how Living Sacrifice are perceived. The lyrics aren't that important to me because, as I say, i'm not heavily influenced by religion in any way. Even still, the vocals are pivotal. I was also quite impressed with the clean vocals. They're well sung and keep the excited fresh feel in the foreground.


The most impressive thing about Living Sacrifice is those guitars. Heavy as heavy could be, really. The distorted guitars are where, you could say, the aggression really prevails. Although the vocals do a good job of sustaining the pressure, the guitars really enforce the heavy-handed approach. It's not all solos though, there is enough variation to keep anyone intrigued throughout. Melody flows, rhythm increases and the instruments work in harmony with the vocals to pound away at the ear drums of the audience. 'The Hammering Process' was a good album back in the day and still remains a good album.