Dimension of Torment

Dimension of Torment is not the first Sovereign album to be graced by Rudolf the Proud's maniacal face and crazy moustache. It is his first album as a lone wolf, and he seems to be adjusting well... or at least coping better with these spells which arise under a full moon. As the name suggests, this album explores the torments of life with alcoholism and insanity, often through the scope of lycanthropy. Crazy things do happen under the influence of alcohol, late at night, and few have ended as well as a Sovereign album.

This album slows down a bit from the previous one, still ripping like early Bathory and Demonthor, but beginning to focus more on the melodies which haunt this type of black metal. This album also offers the first glimpse at the real madness of what Sovereign would become! "Werewolf's Fury" builds in a crescendo of baroque-tinged guitar shredding madness. This isn't a typical egotistical guitar solo filling eight bars in the middle of a song. Rudolf's apex of intensity are an escalation of black metal riffs through increasing timber and intensity, made faster by tapping and more frantic exposition of the melodies. It sounds like Eddie Van Halen being mauled by a werewolf under a fullmoon in a graveyard in Sao Paolo. To think, this is only the beginning of this madness as part of Sovereign's music!

Amidst the wild and frantic nature of aggressive black metal, there are different shades of emotion within this album. "Sovereign Lucifer" and "Nation of Death" feel a bit more dignified and reverent, contrasting the disgrace command of the unusually frustrated and intense "Alcoholic Man" and some vocals with a slower voicing that sound more tormented than frantic. If you are a false, you may think of this as all raw and insane black metal, but these variations within the mindset of Sovereign are interesting to hear. It is quite a furious burst of six songs.

The seventh song, "In the Influence of Mars," is an old one from 1995, which oddly enough did not appear on the album of the same name. It is a pompous and triumphant tune, an odd contrast to the misery of the other tracks. The guitar work is perhaps the simplest Rudolf has ever done, the vocals rasps and not yet wild shrieks. It has a feeling of astral reverence - perhaps once a higher ambition of Sovereign before embodying the torments of this dimension.

The Dogman would later have more intense bouts of lycanthropy in this style, outshining the moonlit reflections of insanity contained here.