This Norwegian version of Sovereign (there are over 15 bands of this name listed that I could find) are a death/thrash group featuring ex members of Nocturnal Breed, Incinerator (these guys are awesome!) and Nekromantheon.

‘Altered Reality’ eventually gets going in a howling vocal akin to early Death recordings, with a pace of early Sepultura and Slayer. Yeah, this is a real adrenaline ride. Unsurprising based on the PR material, I’m not too much of a keyboard fan, but its subtle and for effect. ‘Futile Dreams’ is fast, riff laden, and I mean at blistering pace considering the complexity of the patterns. The heeding call of the haunted vocals draws you in further and when the flashes of finger shredding riffs come out, with a slight harmonic approach, it stirs your hearing. I like the fact you can hear the bass clearly in the mix too. Sometimes the arrangement goes rather scattergun, I remember thinking this reminds me of the approach of early Hellwitch. Technically brilliant I might add, the structure makes you listen a little more, you often can’t predict what you will hear next.

‘Counter Tech’ heralds early 90’s extreme music, as does this whole release to be fair, the pattern is similar, in some places you lose the value of sustain, this is compensated to generate the lighter atmospheric feel with the aforementioned keyboards, it’s still evil as hell though and has a ripping solo! ‘Nebular Waves’ brings on Armageddon from its start, slower, groovier, Obituary like in places.

As a debut release, this is a great listen, it’s a real nod to early death thrash, I’d throw Possessed, Morbid Saint in to the mix too as pointers; the musicians display the influences of their other bands and former projects, thus giving the listener a real kick in the rear with a mandatory requirement to have fun and hammer out your appreciation.

(8.5/10 Paul Maddison)

https://www.facebook.com/sovereignnorway

https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/altered-realities