Living Sacrifice: Non-Existent (re-issue) | A Journey From The Bay Area To Florida
(1992 – 2022 Nordic Mission)
In recent times it has become fashionable to re-release discographic works and to revalue records that have been out of print for a long time, even from bands that are currently inactive. Living Sacrifice is no exception to this (fortunately) and thanks to the Nordic Mission label we can once again access their discography.
In this case, we have what was originally Living Sacrifice’s second album. “NonExistent” which was originally released in 1992 by the now defunct ‘Rex Music’ and later by SolidState Records. This new edition is presented as a celebration for the 30th anniversary of this work. In addition to a neat graphic re-edition that includes the lyrics, a few words from Brandon Ebel (founder of Tooth And Nail and Solidstate Records) and other stuff, we have vintage photographs and the inclusion of a bonus track, “Desolate”, an unreleased vintage song, which for some reason had not been originally included on the album although it should be noted that it has not been mentioned where it came from or what its origin is, although by sound and mix, it clearly belongs to this period of the band.
Going to the album itself, we have 10 tracks (11 if we count “Desolate”) that at the time, meant a substantial shift of Living Sacrifice from their bay area Thrash Metal towards a sound more closely related to Florida Death Metal resulting in one of their most aggressive works in their history. The sound, a bit poor for a band with few resources at that time, has been remastered and greatly improved thanks to the work of Jeremiah Scott who, from the original analog records, made a new mix.
Obviously, and as we mentioned before, Living Sacrifice has had its influences but it is remarkable that this does not result in the repetition of foreign formulas since LS has managed to stamp its own stamp on the sound in general, highlighting already in this album riffs, cuts and sounds that would be deepened with the following albums. “Haven Of Blasphemy” and ‘Distorted’ can be a good example of this. In any case, it is worth noting that in several songs they repeat the same sounds, without that being a bad sign, but it is something to be remarked. “Void Of Expression” is perhaps the most different and interesting of the album along with ‘Chemical Straight Jacket’. Where is the unreleased “Desolate”? Not very interesting, it is a good song with laments in the background that doesn’t justify too much its inclusion but it is understood that it is the bait for collectors although I would have liked a double edition with live tracks of that time.
This 30th anniversary edition of “NonExistent” is a good opportunity to find again a good Living Sacrifice album, or to get into their primitive (and good) sound for the first time before their explosion and later change of style with “Reborn” and everything that came after. Luckily, this reissue is not only available on CD but also on vinyl, for that try https://www.nordicmission.net.
