Sovereign Council
New Reign

May 2014
Released: 2013, Indie
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer: JP

This young seven-piece (!) from Kingston, Ontario Canada is an interesting act. To the best of my knowledge NEW REIGN is their debut that came out late in 2013.



The CD is well-presented with a simple, but elegant album cover reminiscent of something House Of Lords might do, with a regal looking logo that visually matches the image of the bands name. The back cover photo and layout messed up my brain. The band put a bit of time and energy into the 10-page booklet with nice photos, (the band look slightly gothic), lyrics and liner notes. It was self-produced and sounds quite good for a homemade recording.



The band play a style of Metal with progressive and some symphonic flourishes and clean female vocals, which is really popular everywhere in the Western world, except North America. It seems odd to that a band from a (relatively) small town in Canada, would produce something in this style. The vocals fall right in the middle of the three-way ‘beauty and the beast style’ with a clean male vocal, a harsh male vocal and a clean female vocal courtesy of Lisa Thompson. Her role is related to a support role as most of the songs are sung in a nice mid-range clean style. The lyrics are introspective and intelligent, maybe wandering into emo territory at times.



The band is certainly quite heavy at times but has some extra parts that add to the multi-dimensional sound, for example the acoustic guitar on ‘Siren’s Song’ or the piano breakdown about three-quarters of the way through the cut ‘Sweet Poison’. There are various orchestrated parts with some strings and more piano, but these never become the focal point of the song, the band still retaining a Metal core.



This is a pretty impressive debut. The band has it together with good song-writing, production, performances and presentation. I could see a European label like Napalm or Massacre showing some interest in Sovereign Council, based on the strength of NEW REIGN.