Review: Living Sacrifice – Ghost Thief (2013)

By Topher Parks

Living Sacrifice is back and here to stay. Nearly 4 years ago, one of the pioneers of Christian metal returned from a 5-year absence with their seventh studio album, The Infinite Order, which dropped everywhere in stores and online in January of 2010 to critical acclaim. They have now followed that up with their latest effort, Ghost Thief, released this past November.

Ghost Thief commences with a low humming sound leading into a beautiful piano rhythm, before the metal hits the listener full-force in “Screwtape”. Bruce Fitzhugh’s signature vocals sear straight through the top-notch instrumentation on the verses. If that’s not enough to keep metalheads enthused, there’s always Ryan Clark (of Demon Hunter) as the guest vocalist singing the chorus, which only adds to the song’s power. After the bridge “Screwtape” the stomping drumbeat slowly fades away to nothing before the only sound left is coming from Rocky Gray’s guitar. Epic may be a grossly overused word, but it holds true meaning when describing the album opener. Similarly, the title track follows with another fade-in, however this time with a significantly heavier instrumentation. The verses feature an insanely brutal pattern set in a ¾ time signature, and the chorus rocks hard. “Ghost Thief” is another relatively lengthy song (clocking in at around 5 minutes) that ends too soon. The title track is succeeded by “The Reaping”, a fairly straight-forward metal tune with the sound Living Sacrifice became known for. The guitar solo during the bridge is brief but still finds a way to pack a punch! After “The Reaping” comes “Straw Man”, another killer track set in ¾ timing, however this time throughout the entire song. With a little bit of singing on the chorus and another insane guitar solo, “Straw Man” seems to have all of the best parts from each of the previous songs.

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“Sudden” is a slower tune that in the beginning sounds like it’s a ballad, but these Arkansas natives keep it metal with another solid track. “Mask” is typical Living Sacrifice right up until a vicious minute-long breakdown touches ground, followed by another in-your-face guitar solo. From there the Christian metallers dive right into “American Made”, which doesn’t stand out much from any other Living Sacrifice song either, but still kicks some serious rear-end. “Before” follows with a minute-and-a-half-long intro and instrumentation throughout. “Your War” replicates the same pattern set by the songs that precede it for the most part. Although it seems like it’d fit well as the album closer, the track that finishes off the record is actually a fast-paced foot-stomper titled “Despair”. There isn’t really anything special about “Despair” until the chorus when Dave Peters of Throwdown joins in. Peters, who brings both his singing and screaming to the table in the song, adds exactly what the band needs to finish Ghost Thief on a high note!

The latest offering from the legendary metallers Living Sacrifice is yet another decent release from them. Ghost Thief starts off with a block of killer metal, before slowing down the pace a bit. After the first four tracks dominate, there are three more standouts and three run-of-the-mill Living Sacrifice tunes. The run-of-the-mill LS tunes are still better than a lot of popular metal out there today, but on the album they seem like filler. As a whole, Ghost Thief is a solid release from the band, but it is certainly not their best work.