SACRIFICE — Soldiers of Misfortune (review)

SACRIFICE — Soldiers of Misfortune album cover Album · 1991 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
voila_la_scorie
"Soldiers of Misfortune" is the third studio release by Canadian thrash band, Sacrifice. Their previous album "Forward to Termination" had begun turning heads and the band looked forward to even larger success with this one. Although at least one member claimed that the sound quality was not as good as FTT, the reissue that I have, a double disc featuring metric tonnes of live material, sounds great.

Sacrifice probably sound closest to Slayer crossed with Nuclear Assault with the latter similarity showing up most notably in the vocals.

As a thrash album, there's a lot to be anticipated. Of course speedy riffs, coarse screamed vocals, double-bass pummeling, and so on. But one of the things I love about thrash metal are the mid-song tempo changes, slowing down to heavy ponderous riffs or starting up a song slow and ominously and then going into quadruple time. This album has plenty of that meaning there's good contrast between songs. Catch the excellent thrashing opener "As the World Burns" which is contrasted by the forbidding intro to the title track, which is not unlike Metallica's "Thing that Should Not Be". This is followed by an intense thrash attack with "In Defiance".

The album continues with song after song of powerful thrash metal. You can just see the heads banging and long hair flying! Though I had the debut on cassette when it first came out, I no longer remember it. It does seem to me that Sacrifice have added more complex song arrangements, particularly in the riff/rhythm and tempo changes within songs. It makes this album unpredictable in that you never know if the song is going to speed up or slow down or come to an abrupt halt and suddenly burst into high gear, or drop some monster riff swiftly into your backside. Listening to it now, it's sweetness to my ears. A great thrash metal album!

The album concludes with the 10:16 track "Truth (After the Rain)". This monumental (for thrash) undertaking is surprisingly (or not, given what I have observed of the band so far) well-accomplished. A journey of slow heavy riffs, speedier parts, galloping solos, and everything else you've heard so far, "Truth" keeps the listener attentive. There's even a clean guitar break with a bass fill before more heavy riffs pile up. The ending is completely unpredictable.

The special double disc edition fills up the rest of the album disc with live performances and one studio outtake and disc two is all live. I don't really care for all this bonus material. Do we want to hear "As the World Burns" three or four times in crappy live at the club sound? Answer that yourself. The only plus is that you can hear a couple of songs from other albums performed live in a crappy sound.

Barring the bonus material, this is a great studio album of thrash metal.
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voila_la_scorie wrote:
more than 2 years ago
We all inspire each other to love even more metal. And buy more albums!
Unitron wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Good review, I'm going to have to check these guys out.

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