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SOVEREIGN
Altered Realities

Dark Descent (2024)
Rating: 9/10

Over the last 40 years a lot of bands have used the moniker Sovereign and this Oslo, Norway-based bunch is the latest combo to adopt the name. The band features lead guitarist Tommy Jacobsen and fellow axeman Vidar Fineidet, both of who formerly featured for Nocturnal Breed, and they are joined by vocalist / bassist Simen Roher Grong and drummer Cato Syversrud.

Musically, this debut album takes me back to the cosmic shifts of Pestilence mixed with the intellectual ferocity of Dark Angel; sniping death-thrash with occasional forays into something more abrasive and blackened. The vocals are vicious throughout as the clan channels otherworldly raw thrash, something that seems to exist in the waters of Norway because bands from the region seem adept at creating organic brilliance alongside unorthodox musings.

The opening title track is a seven-minute behemoth which roars like an icy cascading waterfall and which hides within a vintage Sepultura scowl. It’s deadly thrash with metallic twists within its layers, and yet the band has an eye for grooves too; deep gouging chugs and pulverising plateaus awash with brash and bold stirrings of vivid colour amidst the grey veil of rainy gloom.

The groove metal motions of ‘Counter Tech’ are propelled by the snarling vocals, while ‘Synthetic Life’ has a somewhat Demolition Hammer vibe, but as with all of the seven cuts on offer there is something otherworldly, meaning that Sovereign seems an ideal companion to that Nothingness opus, Supraliminal, I raved about last year.

‘Nebular Waves’ is a colossal tune, somehow cinematic in its presence and yet formidable in its structure. ‘Futile Dreams’ is downright devastating, so kudos to madman Cato Syversrud for a gargantuan performance with his sticks. The rawness never leaves each composition and the result is a fearsome, cocksure beast of a record culminating in the slithering cosmic mass of ‘Absence Of Unity’; a glinting monster of perverse angles and mocking smirks.

To an extent this outing showcases the true, arrogant identity of the Norwegian sound; an underground cauldron of caustic and hate-filled excellence that freezes the bones like a drab downpour while in turn pumping the victim full of multicoloured lead.

Neil Arnold

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