In restless pursuit of repeatable, confirmable knowledge the slow bureaucracy of societally applied wisdom insists upon its own desynchronization, a lagging devolutionary spiral. With the futility of the timeline exposed and observed Oslo, Norway-based death/thrash metal quartet Sovereign arrive upon their ancient portal looking-in, a debut full-length album which attacks outwardly in the direction of unknown futurity before its tactical exploration begins to meander in contemplation of what’d been shattered by their volley and what was made real in the midst of their crossing over. From the hailing fire of the opener to the gainfully adrift at sea closer herein ‘Altered Realities‘ is a riff-obsessed trip taken as an extension of the eldest highest standards but not a total space-cased melt outside of time. Its infamy will insist upon the classicist thrasher’s vision of thinking man’s cosmic horrors, an ‘old school’ attack set upon the dystopian circling of the present and make its impact among those seeking new adventures in an arcane voice.

Sovereign formed circa 2018 between folks who have a long history of involvement in the black, death and thrash metal scenery in Oslo and abounding be it live guitars for Nekromantheon, several albums with Nocturnal Breed, or more recent projects such as Dødskvad and Stavanger-based ‘supergroup’ The Konsortium. At least three of the original band members spent a couple of years in a more accessible type band (Stormbeist) in the mid-2010’s and this seems to have been where some of the instant chemistry of their work seems to have been pulled from in producing a quick to rise result when it came time to record an early single (“Iron Cast“, 2018) wherein the style of the band had recalled something venomous and yet speed metal built a la Sacrifice (Canada). Soon after an ultra-limited Snake Oil Kassettforlag edition debut demo tape (‘Sovereign‘, 2019) would soon clarify their intent. Reissued as their first EP (‘Neurotic‘, 2020) with “Iron Cast” tacked on the broader-reaching version of that first demo recalled the peaking aggression of prime Sepultura, Pestilence and Agressor (France). You’ll recall I was stoked over the tape when it’d released, reviewing it favorably and praising the amount of ground it’d covered within just a few songs. At the time I’d not spent any time considering what a full-length from the band might entail, riffs for sure but there was no clear implication that these folks’d brought any ambitious plans based on their refined yet brief demo recordings.

Substance before style. — Today the majority of bands labeled as death/thrash metal are either unwilling to seriously engage the high standards of ‘old school’ death-thrash metal per the late 80’s and early 90’s, or, they’re ignorant of where the peak sophistication of thrash and the raw assault of early death metal merged souls out of extremophilic interest or… sheer survival. The merciless work it takes to create a dynamic, punishing set of songs worthy of the classics involves deploying long and complex strands of creative and blazing-fast riffs and it seems the era of guitarists with that specific fortitude has long passed outside of imitation. Sovereign are a cut above the rest in the sense that they’ve done the work, chipped away at their own attack and in the process meandered into the grooves of early progressive death/thrash to create their own lurking-around-the-bend dynamism. Opener “Altered Reality” immediately speaks to this era as it thunders in building momentum, stabbing into each gallop before a series of dramatic refrains delays their burst into what is clearly going to be a “riff” album proper. In any case, it should be obvious enough from the first listen where Sovereign spent three years (~2019-2022) of their time making sure their debut was a prime result, getting the substantive thread of the riffcraft and performances right before gilding all with the right render and visual style.

Two things should stick in mind as this album develops its whorl of pensive psychic energumen, first the keys on the first songs should recall something like ‘Testimony of the Ancients‘ per vocalist/bassist Simen Grong‘s register, a clear rasping roar not too far from the early Van Drunen range/cadence. The production values are vaguely comparable that of more recent of Obliteration in some sense, perhaps more relevant to anyone who’d been stunned by Nekromantheon‘s return a couple of years ago where the sound is high quality but also understands the intense space occupied by circa ’91 crisped records such as ‘Arise‘ or, another favorite of mine, ‘A Shedding of Skin‘ wherein the drums aren’t so mauled by deleterious bass frequencies. “Futile Dreams” follows the seven minute bombast of the opener with a quicker dive into the hunt and shred faculties of their action, trading wailing leads and strings of thrashing riffs with mid-paced wall shaking death metal riffs as they keep the momentum high and occasionally allow the bass guitar performances to break through for rhythmic flourish (~2:08 minutes in) or quick solo spikes to indicate directional changes. In terms of the death metal theatre of war ‘Altered Realities‘ isn’t so outright wrist-cracking song after song as ‘Tortured Existence‘ or ‘Dreaming With the Dead‘ to start but still speaks to that level of energy and attack the old heads would describe as elite, proper thrashing death metal.

Chills shocking up my spine, eyes bugging out of their sockets, and with one foot tapping frantically along ‘Altered Realities‘ already had its teeth in my flesh after two songs but first big stab to the viscera hit with the down-stroked grooves which bring tension to the opening of “Nebular Waves”. Simple as this type of riff appears the machinery of the song is a darting and scrambling race to action which requires a decisive nerve flitting between riffs and runs in a manner which creates the illusion of speed with its technical pecking away at shapes, granted it is one of the shorter pieces on the album at under four minutes but it is the perfect ramp up to the peak of Side A. “Counter Tech” is that peak in the context of being wrapped up in the heated core of the full listen, jogging in fast before leaning into a heavier groove for its first several verses in escalation. Around ~2:43 minutes in we hit a sort of quasi-‘Thresholds‘ riff and the piece spaces out for a solid thirty seconds before shades of ‘South of Heaven‘ meet up with (early) Obliveon infused riffcraft for a grand reprise, a flapping and shredding bridge delivered with some Coroner-level shred to spike up interest in its last third. This is more-or-less the logical evolution of what they’d presented on their demo tape (per “Paroxysm of Madness”) and this heady drift into a more aloof technical direction is a brilliant aspect of Sovereign‘s approach to death/thrash, or, a good marker for how much they’ve developed their whole gig since 2019.

Consider me sold on the first listen of this album, around the middle of that fourth piece, as I stared at the impressive classic sci-fi novel looking Skaðvaldur cover painting and found the thread of the full listen impossible to interrupt in its flowing but not unchanging movement from piece to piece. There is a “mean” aggression to their rhythms to start, a violence with which they are struck, but this always involves some manner of inventive twist or swerve away from a known direction. The unknown is always lurking around the corner as the full listen becomes familiar and as a listener this’d held my attention for plenty of rides through the full ~42 minute spin. From my perspective this is an ancient, forgotten standard which is largely upheld as we delve into some more exaggerative and experimental ideas on the second half, starting with some cyborg slimed vocal effects on the otherwise bullied-out and brutal kick of “The Enigma of Intelligence” and the morbid-thrashing attack of “Synthetic Life” as its basslines crawl in a vertical scaling motion between verses. While these are fine enough songs which uphold the momentum and bursting vault of ideas Sovereign unleash herein it is the 10+ minute closer “Absence of Unity” which tops off the lasting impression made upon the listener where we get more fluxion and finesse from the rhythm section, including some signature movement from drummer Cato Syversrud (Execration) who seems to have been an important part of the step up beyond the demo phase for the quartet.

There is frustration, street-level violence and the still-smoking fires of defiance pressed into every movement on Sovereign‘s debut, an inspired work which’d easily pulled me back into its spiral of wires, claws and fogged-over atmospheric reaches time and time again over the last five weeks. This’d even gone as far as to interrupt my end of the year considerations as I’d felt like the standard had been set higher per my own glimpse into the future. Needless to say that for my own taste what these fellowes have put together lines up squarely with the upper-echelon of what death/thrash metal can be today, a rare crew capable of representing the sub-genre’s killing hand as well as their own oversized brain(s) in a jar status without coming across pretentious, off-topic or trite. An inspiring start for the band and an early standout for 2024. A very high recommendation. [92/100]

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