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Soldiers of Misfortune is the third album from Canada's Sacrifice (enjoying a vinyl reissue along with Torment in Fire and Forward to Termination courtesy of High Roller Records). Of their first three albums, it is my least favorite. It still is a sharp, fast thrash record with some nice lead work and plenty of ire, but by the time it was released, originally in 1990, the thrash wave had crested, and bands were looking to incorporate other elements into their sound to try and separate themselves from the vast ocean of clone bands. For Sacrifice, it sounds like they opted for a bit of hardcore, namely in the vocal department, rather than the death metal direction a lot of other bands pursued. On the previous records, singer Rob Urbinati sounded like barely contained banshee, an approach that had its pros and cons but was always kind of interesting, but on Soldiers of Misfortune he adopted a somewhat depthless scream that possesses none of the excitement of his previous maniacal efforts. To me, he sounds the same on every cut and that robs the album of a lot of individuality, and it goes by in an undistinguished blur. There are snippets here and there that are cool, but nothing to lift Soldiers of Misfortune above its self-inflicted blandness. It's not a bad album, but its predecessors are much better.

Additional Information

2022 reissue on High Roller Records reviewed.