Reborn — Living Sacrifice

Living Sacrifice's fourth album, Reborn, came out on November 4, 1997. It was the band's first record for Solid State, Tooth & Nail's heavy imprint. Barry Poynter produced it at Poynter's Palace in Little Rock, Arkansas, in January 1997. It's twelve tracks and about forty-eight minutes (48:32). Bruce Fitzhugh took over lead vocals and played rhythm guitar. Jason Truby played lead guitar, years before he joined P.O.D., Chris Truby played bass and Lance Garvin played drums. The record dropped most of the band's death and thrash metal for a tighter metalcore and hardcore attack. It sits on our metal shelf. It scores a 9/10.

What you're hearing

Reborn Empowered sets the terms right away. You get down-tuned, groove-heavy riffs, Fitzhugh barking rather than growling, and drums that keep shoving the song forward. Reject and Sellout are short, blunt and built for a pit. AllMusic gave it 3/5, and Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted that the average metal fan would find much to like, "particularly the pummeling riffs and shredding solos."

Christian outlets went further. Cross Rhythms gave it a perfect 10/10 twice, first from Alex Figgis on release and then from Tony Cummings when the remaster came out. Cummings flagged Jason Truby's playing "in pre-P.O.D. days." Fred Keel at Jesus Freak Hideout gave it 4/5 in 2008 and called it a "Christian metal masterpiece," though he felt a few songs, including Truth Solution, Threatened and Awakening, run longer than they need to.

How it was made

Living Sacrifice had made three records before this one, starting out in the death metal underground. For Reborn the band changed singers, labels and sound all at once. Fitzhugh, already the rhythm guitarist, stepped up to the mic, and the band recorded at Poynter's studio in its hometown of Little Rock. The new sound was closer to hardcore in its rhythm and attitude, but it didn't lose the weight of metal. Solid State reissued the album remastered on January 27, 2004, and a 2020 vinyl pressing sold out quickly.

Where the score lands

It gets a nine because the album changed what Christian heavy music sounded like. Jesus Freak Hideout later put it at No. 71 on its list of the top 100 Tooth & Nail albums, where Timothy Estabrooks called it "arguably the single most important album in Christian metalcore history." Two perfect scores from Cross Rhythms and a 4/5 from JFH agree. Why not a ten? Keel was right that a few songs outstay their welcome, and AllMusic's 3/5 is a fair reminder that the mainstream metal press was cooler on it. Why not an eight? Very few records help start a whole lane, and this one did.

Watch

Reject leads as official audio, posted by Solid State Records. After it come the album versions of Reborn Empowered and Sellout.

Where this album sits on Loud Faith

Reborn is one of the records where Christian metalcore starts. It came before most of the bands that later filled the Solid State roster, and it gave them a template: heavy, fast, honest about faith and unwilling to soften the music to make that point. It belongs on our metal shelf, right at the front.