This Is My Blood

In the late 90’s and early 00’s Living Sacrifice were on a peak regarding popularity and creativity. They had a few important and much needed line-up changes that fueled them with some great, new energy. Amongst the new people was notable guitar-shredder Rocky Gray. And amongst the amazing releases were "The Hammering Process" (2000) and "Conceived in Fire" (2002). All things should point in the direction of awesomeness when Gray (and fellow LS member drummer Lance Garvin) released their more straight up metal release "This is My Blood" under the Soul Embraced-moniker. However, this is not the case.

Released in 2002 through Solid State, on would expect a great deal of hardcore here. At the time, Soul Embraced were one of the few more metal sounding bands on the SS roster. Sure, Soul Embraced does want to sound more metal than they really are, but compared to many of the record company’s other bands, this does apply more to the Living Sacrifice and Sepultura fans. The music has a great deal of groove all around, a good portion of metalcore single-note chugging, some melodic death here and there and a handful of all out death metal riffing. The songs are short, most being just under 3 minutes long. Some songs fade out after the solo or just don’t give much attention the third part of the songs. This is actually a good thing, as most of the riffs here are rather boring, the drumming even more so. I am having a very hard time imagining Lance Garvin, who time and time again has proven he is a phenomenal drummer on the Living Sacrifice releases, is actually playing drums here. It sounds like a kid practicing basic rock beats. Overall the music sounds like it is held back, and it is only on the closing track Leech they finally let loose! Interestingly this is also the song that is closest to actually being a death metal tune. Vocals are not that varied. Chad Moore screams (one scream is a bit high, the other being slightly lower), and there are a few clean vocals here and there. Track 2 The Scorn of Death’s Kiss does have a great Zao-ish moment where they experiment with the vocals and music a bit more.

Lyrically Soul Embraced sings a lot about the ups and downs of their Christian faith. It all seems very inspired by The Book of Psalms except for a few songs dealing with other biblical topics.

If you are hungry for more Living Sacrifice, do not let this be the next best thing. Sadly, it is fare from it, despite a few good moments from these talented musicians.

I regret to inform the lot of you that you will not like this CD. Although it contains plenty of death metal style riffs, drumming that shifts from breakneck too melodic; bass lines that follow the guitar riffs and make their own riffs; and vocals that shift from clean to death rasp vocals, you will not like this CD.

Oh sure, you'll take a look at the cover art and say "Cool. This guy is ripping open his stomach! His guts are spewing out! Winnar!"

You will then put it into your CD player, and hit play. You will bang your head to the plethora of guitar riffs that are laced throughout this CD. You will mosh around the sounds of the double bass drumming, and blast beat riffs. You will growl along with the singer, as he switches from distorted to clean on the fly.

You will then decide to read the lyrics. While doing so emotions of sadness and anger well overwhelm you. Betrayed, you will bang your fist against whatever it is that you like to bang your fists on. You will take the CD out of your stereo, and either hide the CD away somewhere or throw it away.

After doing this, you will play a Vital Remains CD and try to forget that for a moment, you actually enjoyed a Christian metal CD. Which is a shame really, because “This is My Blood” is a fine album. Just give it one more shot, you’ll like it.