Sovereign – Altered Realities Review

[AWESOME cover art by Skaðvaldur]

Sovereign is a thrashy band from Norway. They intermingle with other thrashy bands from Norway (one member has even played live with scene kings Nekormantheon). But Sovereign does not necessarily sound like what you expect when you hear the phrase “Norwegian thrash metal,” which is most likely something on the spectrum between 80s albums like Hell Awaits and the country’s own Black Thrash Attack.

Rather, debut full length Altered Realities gets its violence from slightly different, less notably demonic origins. It pulls from that wondrous era when death and thrash metals had not yet fully separated, and when the idea of “tech” was really starting to take hold. Altered Realities is full of calls to what bands like Death, Pestilence, Sadus, and the like were up to from around ‘88 to ‘92, and Sovereign does a more than just admirable job keeping up with such lofty influences. Most of all, even when pulling from sources that would sometimes veer into rather sophisticated territory (mostly the Deathiest moments), Sovereign keeps it rather fun, with just enough of a frayed edge (especially in some of grip-it-and-rip-it solos) to keep images of ripped jeans and high-top sneakers in your head.

It’s palpable by the variety of tempos and attacks, and just how lived in these songs feel, that these four guys love this material. The riffs of Tommy Jacobsen and V. Fineideath provide a full range from deceptively simple passages to blazing speed and smarmy tech; Gravskjender bellows out a hoarse, menacing, and somewhat unhinged scream-growl at the mic while playing a lot of bubbly licks and countermelodies on the bass; and drummer Cato Syversrud (also in Execration) does, well, just about everything, meeting the band at all moods and tempos, while his respect for the ride cymbal and love of big hammering tom hits give the album just an ounce of Morbid Angel.

As for tempos, one of the best signs that Sovereign really gets this stuff is their range of speeds. “But thousands of metal bands shift tempos,” you might say, and suuuuuuuuurrrre, but if you think back to an album like Human, the best albums of Sovereign’s target era did it kind of differently, maximizing the different speeds for varying moods, instead of just changing tempo for violent effect. The mid-paced material on Altered Realities is where all those personality traits mentioned above come through best. Whether the band is in a deliberate but unrushed drive (with hooky flourishes like the phrase-ending meedlies in “Counter Tech”) or almost approaching doomy territory (allowing extra space for a killer solo in “Synthetic Life“), everyone is staying plenty busy.

But fear not. Sovereign is no stranger to dropping a cinderblock on the gas pedal, which they do frequently and with great glee. The speedy, high octane moments in songs like “Altered Reality” get into almost Dark Angel terrain, but the extra tough of prog and micro stop-starts will have you thinking No More Color instead (and it’s all the more fun when Syversrud hits those roto toms). When they really cut the fat and push these shifts in close proximity to each other, such as on the sub-four-minute “Nebular Waves” (the shortest tune here) they show some truly brutal efficiency.

The only real caveat to all this praise is that Sovereign doesn’t always achieve such lean efficiency or reach the heights this album seems to hint at. For example, there’s a spot in “The Enigma of Intelligence” when everything opens up for a gigantic, swaggeriffic solo that rips out like it came to life on Unquestionable Presence, but the band quickly shifts into more manic territory, abandoning what could or should be the song’s big winning moment. It’s still really fun, but it’s so close to being magic, and leaves the impression that the song wasn’t necessarily written as a whole but rather a collection of parts. “But thousands of metal bands get by on piecing ideas together haphazardly,” you might say, and suuuuuuuuuuuure, but tight songwriting leads to memorable songs, and Sovereign’s best influences excelled at this.

Of course, parts of this record already see Sovereign operating at this higher level, with no song showing more cohesion or featuring a greater combination of thrills and menace than 10-minute closer “Absence of Unity.” After some eerie ambience, a killer riff pattern introduces the feeling that this is indeed the beginning of the end, and that feeling of desperation and danger grows as Gravskjender barks out rage, the guitars play some menacing, harmonized trills, the thrash takes on a more obviously tech side, and the solo refuses to be contained by its assigned section. It’s a seamless series of thrilling passages, and it all occurs over just the song’s first half. The second half is pure doom in both mood and style, as things get slow, with Sovereign repeating the same sequence until the track ends while their collective talents fill in the dynamics of that space. It’s supremely effective, and a wickedly cool finish that really feels like a finale.

An album full of songs as good as the shortest and longest tracks here would really see Sovereign approaching that elite status. Is it unfair to compare the songwriting prowess of a relatively new band to someone like Chuck Schuldiner? Of course not! Bands should aim high, and it’s clear in the sound that Sovereign has chosen that they are indeed aiming high. It won’t be remotely surprising to hear them keep growing and refining their approach. Besides, even with some of the songs lacking a little in overall flow, Altered Realities is one seriously fun and promising debut from a band that is probably already whipping up something even more impressive.