Product Review

Digitally remastered edition of this 2000 EP. In chronological terms, Sovereign served as a millennial segue between two of the band's most revered full-lengths, 1999's Times of Grace and 2001's a Sun That Never Sets. Opener 'Prayer' sets the omnipotent tone for all that follows. A master-class in deep dynamics, the song ascends from it's quiet beginnings into a rolling, hypnotic power-dirge couched in a bone-rattling rhythm. 'An Offering' brings arsenic visions of 'Eden' or at least of the ruinous snake and the tree of knowledge around which it infamously coiled. The instrumental 'Flood' is a veritable drum cannonade. And, clocking in at over 13 minutes in length, 'Sovereign' offers perhaps the widest variety of textures, tones and instrumental undulations. Under headphones, it is a psychotropic experience of the highest order.