Sovereign - will the real Sovereign stand up?

Sovereign

Altered Realities

Dark Descent Records

19 January 2024

There are many bands with this name, and just looking at Metal Archives one finds close to 20 bands with the same name. This particular band is said to be from Oslo, Norway, with a handful of songs so far: Iron Cast (single, 2018), Sovereign (demo, 2019), and Neurotic (EP, 2020), and now Altered Realities (seven songs in 41 minutes). The band is Gravskjender (Simen Grong) (ex-Stormbeist) on bass and vocals (2018-present); two former members of black thrashers Nocturnal Breed: "Tommy Jacobsen" and V. Fineideath (Vidar Fineidet) on guitars; with Cato Syversrud on drums (2021-present). If your band has two guitarists from Noctural Breed, then it's no surprise that thrash is a foundation. In this case, Sovereign is frenetic, technical, headbanging death thrash. The music is jam-packed with riffs, shredding and skilled guitar action, and a rhythm section that, after you hear the album, will have you icing up your neck. The technical aspect of the music means that it does not sound like some form of punk metal, but rather well-played, well-written songs with precise execution, all while holding the intensity as an important part of the music. It's not super proggy nor excessively technical, and certainly not tech/prog. The vocals are in the style of death metal, but it is not a deep growl but more like intelligible, enunciated vocals. The explanation for the good quality is that they have experience in other bands, and that they also have been building towards the album with the demo and EP. Good quality and musicianship. Impressive.

Altered Realities by Sovereign

https://www.facebook.com/sovereignnorway/