Ghost Thief

Ghost Thief is the eighth studio album by the Christian metal band, Living Sacrifice. It is their second album produced by Jeremiah Scott.

Ghost Thief
Studio album by
Living Sacrifice
ReleasedNovember 11, 2013[1]
RecordedNovember 2012
Genre
Length45:15
LabelSolid State
ProducerJeremiah Scott
Living Sacrifice chronology
The Infinite Order
(2010)		 Ghost Thief
(2013)

Writing and recording

The band toured in support of their prior album, The Infinite Order, for three years before starting up work on recording a followup.[4] The band chose to once again work with music producer Jeremiah Scott, with whom the band had collaborated on their previous album.[6] The band started with writing the music, and then wrote lyrics once the music was already established.[3]

Themes and composition

The album's title Ghost Thief is meant as "the personification of death".[7] Conceptually, the album's lyrics explore the fleeting nature of life, the idea of an afterlife, and how death can be viewed as either "friend or foe" by different people in different circumstances.[7] The tracks "Ghost Thief" and "Sudden" specifically were both inspired by family members of Lance Garvin and Rocky Gray, who died unexpectedly.[7]

The album consists of songs that are mid to fast tempo thrash metal and groove metal,[7] but also features more melodic guitar-work than prior albums as well.[2] Many tracks on the album do not use standard verse-chorus song structures.[4]

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
CCM Magazine[8]
HM Magazine[9]
Indie Vision Music[10]
Jesus Freak Hideout[4]
[4]

Specifying in a three star review by CCM Magazine, Matt Conner recognizes, "With blistering songs like 'Sudden' and the title track, it's clear these guys aren't hanging it up any time soon."[8] David Stagg, indicating in a three star review from HM Magazine, realizes, "The album succeeds on most fronts, but if we’re judging on all the merits in between, the bulk of the tracks blend in."[9] Signaling in a four star review for Jesus Freak Hideout, Timothy Estabrooks responds, "it is an excellent album filled with many masterfully-performed tracks and only a couple of disappointments."[4] Lee Brown, mentioning for Indie Vision Music in a five star review, reports, "Ghost Thief is simply a powerhouse album that fans who have been waiting three long years to get their hands on will not mind coming back to in the coming year/s until the next great Living Sacrifice masterpiece is released."[10] The second opinion by Aaron Lambert from Jesus Freak Hideout, where he rated the album four and a half stars, depicts, "Ghost Thief becomes yet another Christian metal classic from the godfathers of the genre itself."[4]

Track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Screwtape" (featuring Ryan Clark of Demon Hunter)5:35
2."Ghost Thief"4:41
3."The Reaping"3:26
4."Straw Man"3:46
5."Sudden"4:46
6."Mask"4:49
7."American Made"5:26
8."Before"4:31
9."Your War"3:56
10."Despair" (featuring Dave Peters of Throwdown)4:19
Total length:45:15

Personnel

Charts
Chart (2013) Peak
position[11]
U.S. Billboard Christian Albums 23
U.S. Billboard Hard Rock Albums 20
U.S. Billboard Top Heatseekers 9
gollark: Which is fun too! I turned a random bit of mountain into endstone.
gollark: We only have the main RFTools mod.
gollark: It's just hard and I'd need to put together a bunch of machines to run the random chemical processes it needs.
gollark: Which does have fusion too.
gollark: There's no Mekanism here, only NuclearCraft.

References
  1. "Solid State Records|Living Sacrifice|Ghost Thief". Solid State Records. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  2. OverkillExposure. "Living Sacrifice Frontman Talks 'Ghost Thief'". Metalunderground.com. Retrieved March 19, 2015.
  3. "Exclusive: Living Sacrifice Premiere New Song, "Ghost Thief"". revolvermag.com. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  4. Weaver, Michael; Lambert, Aaron (November 10, 2013). "Living Sacrifice, "Ghost Thief" Review". Jesus Freak Hideout. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  5. "Living Sacrifice Conjure Up the "Ghost Thief" - MetalSucks". MetalSucks. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  6. wookubus. "Living Sacrifice To Release New Album In November, Demon Hunter & Throwdown Frontmen To Guest". Theprp.com. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  7. "Living Sacrifice To Release 'Ghost Thief' In November - Blabbermouth.net". BLABBERMOUTH.NET. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  8. Conner, Matt (December 3, 2013). "Living Sacrifice: Ghost Thief". CCM Magazine. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  9. Stagg, David. "Living Sacrifice - Ghost Thief". HM Magazine. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  10. Brown, Lee (November 7, 2013). "Living Sacrifice - Ghost Thief". Indie Vision Music. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  11. Allmusic - 'Ghost Thief' Awards.
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