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Third album for the Canadian thrashers, one that I've seen praised quite a bit. I really like it, but I think it's a bit of a step down from the previous two albums and it falls more in line with what other bands were doing and the vocals just don't sound as good to me. There's a rawness in the previous albums—especially the first one—that's mostly gone here. Depending on whom you ask, that's either a good or a bad thing. In Sacrifice's case, I prefer their raw stuff. So, Soldiers of Misfortune disappointed me a little bit, seeing the band lose some of their early craziness and adopting a cleaner style. But when it comes to all-around thrash, the album is definitely one of the good ones (though, again, the vocals... something's off).

The style here is closer to the "clean U.S. thrash" of the mid to late '80s than it is for the more aggressive and rawer German thrash that Sacrifice's early works reminded me of, setting them apart from their excellent country mates Razor who were more on the clean side of things from the get-go. Despite the cleaner approach, somehow Sacrifice manage to still sound like their old selves in that their signature playing can still be heard with little effort despite the cleaner style. The vocalist does jump back into his older screechy style at times and the guitars still have that raw power despite some obviously better technique. I mentioned in my review of Forward Termination that the atmosphere of Torment of Fire was missing, and that's also true here. You've got the aggression, the razor-sharp guitars with some really cool soloing (reminding me of some Bay Area stuff here and there), and more headbangable moments than you can handle, and it's a guaranteed good time. Most thrashers probably own this already but, if you don't, it's a classic that belongs in your collection.