Tenet - Sovereign review
| Band: | Tenet |
| Album: | Sovereign |
| Style: | Death metal, Thrash metal |
| Release date: | July 20, 2009 |
| A review by: | Baz Anderson |
01. Being And Nothingness
02. Indulge Me
03. Crown Of Thorns
04. Unnameable
05. Take A Long Line
06. Going Down
07. Hail! Hail!
08. Watching You Burn
09. Sovereign
Do you like your metal to hit hard and then repeatedly hit hard in a machine-like relentless assault on the ears? Well it is time to all hail the new flesh for another lesson in violence with this one. After years of struggle, the debut Tenet album is here. Tenet is Jed Simon from Strapping Young Lad's baby, which has grown into an absolute monster with the addition of Strapping Young Lad band mates Gene and Byron, Glen from previous Forbidden and Testament fame, and none other than previous Exodus singer Steve Souza to front this hydra of a band.
Sovereign isn't an album for the people who constantly whine for progression and new directions. Sovereign is an album that sounds just like you would imagine it to with the people involved. Tenet is clearly an illegitimate child of Strapping Young Lad and Exodus displaying the sheer relentless assault of Strapping Young Lad in their best days, and the catchy, thrash-tastic guitar riffs and voice of Exodus.
The album is a short one, but although it is over so soon it leaves a huge chasm of an impression. Sovereign is a constant battery of top quality thrash metal that sounds very contemporary, modern and easy to listen to but has the bite and vigour of those classic Exodus albums. It has been scientifically proved that any vertebrate animal will involuntarily bang its head if presented with Sovereign. Probably. The album is simply irresistible in the most metal of ways. Tenet punches with the power of two powerful and highly popular juggernauts of metal for devastating result.
Nothing new is to be learned from Sovereign, Tenet don't add anything unnecessary to their music and they haven't been influenced by anything we would have rather them not to have. This is straightforward, unoriginal if you will, ball-crushing thrash metal that doesn't care what you think of it. This is hybrid vigour at its best.
You are going to know where you stand with Tenet. If you're not keen on Exodus, or if Strapping Young Lad doesn't tickle your fancy, it is quite a logical conclusion to come to that Tenet aren't going to be up your alley either. If these two bands rock your world, then Tenet are just waiting here to offer you 35 minutes of pure metal to remind you just how great it felt to have a bomb like this explode in your face.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 9 |
Comments
Comments: 27
Visited by: 161 users
| Daggon Underpaid M.D. Posts: 1689  |
I like the album, yes unoriginal, but it's fucking thrash metal, I found it good, but I don't know why I still have the feeling that it lacks of something. But yes Baz, when I listen to this I have the urge to do some headbanging! Nice review.
---- "Les vers savent qu'ils n'ont pas d'ailes, c'est pour cela qu'ils se cachent sous terre"
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| sbgmetal Posts: 866  |
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| Derwood Posts: 511  |
Written by sbgmetal on 12.10.2009 at 03:21 Really? He sounds like a pissed off Munchkin to me. There are some killer riffs here, but I find the vocals just destroy the atmosphere because they sound like they belong with a joke band. I can't listen to this without grinning because it just sounds so humorous, but somehow I don't think that's what the band was going for.
---- You can't fight evil with a macaroni duck!
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| tulkas el parcero Posts: 4742  |
I agree with Derwood. Vocal just don't fit. It immediately reminded me of the movie "Who framed Roger Rabbit?", 'cause it sounds like a really pissed-off angry cartoon (maybe the baby from the beginning of the movie), screaming his guts out. The music is really cool, though. It does make you want to turn around and beat the crap of whoever you see first. That's thrash pureness to me 
---- love is like a jar of shit with a strawberry on top
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| Syk myspace/bonerama Posts: 1504  |
Did Zetro write [m]any of the lyrics? IMO he was a major reason Exodus - Tempo kicked so much ass
---- death ? thrash ? death/doom/prog ? Hail Zoldon! he's not the kind you have to [url=../bands/album.php?album_id=28982]wind up[/url] on Sundays
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| Marfere Posts: 65 |
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| Derwood Posts: 511 |
Written by Marfere on 12.10.2009 at 14:15 Someone who didn't sound like they had inhaled a tank of helium before they started squeaking at the top of their lungs in such a humorous fashion would fit better.
---- You can't fight evil with a macaroni duck!
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| sbgmetal Posts: 866 |
Written by Derwood on 12.10.2009 at 21:07 yes i would like to know as well... and tank of helium? whats wrong with that king diamond n halford sing like gods!
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Written by sbgmetal on 13.10.2009 at 03:22 Do they sing in a thrash-band?
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| Derwood Posts: 511 |
Written by sbgmetal on 13.10.2009 at 03:22 Halford sings like a god, yes. King Diamond I have to take in small doses because he tends to get on my nerves pretty quickly, but neither of them sound like they have been huffing helium, which Steve Souza does on this album. Even the ever irritating Mustaine would sound better than Souza does here.
---- You can't fight evil with a macaroni duck!
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| sbgmetal Posts: 866 |
Written by Derwood on 13.10.2009 at 03:31 good points.... i guess we all have different opinions
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| Derwood Posts: 511 |
Written by sbgmetal on 13.10.2009 at 03:37 Which is precisely what makes sites like this so entertaining.
---- You can't fight evil with a macaroni duck!
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| sbgmetal Posts: 866 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 13.10.2009 at 03:30 no but they have sung on thrash like songs... you cant really say a thrash vocalist sounds like this or that because they incorporate many metal styles...
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| sbgmetal Posts: 866 |
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| Sunioj Posts: 3894  |
I listened to this but I was kinda dissapointed. After the album, I found myself clueless to remembering any of the songs. With a collaboration from peeps in exodus, I wouldve expected much better riffage. But whatevs.
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| Syk myspace/bonerama Posts: 1504 |
Written by Sunioj on 13.10.2009 at 18:38 It seems to me there's no Exo links other than the yelling Souza? I love Forbidden but they haven't really been strong riffmonsters since the 80s... haven't heard too much from SYL or Zimmers Hole. I'll have to try to hear this later this week
---- death ? thrash ? death/doom/prog ? Hail Zoldon! he's not the kind you have to [url=../bands/album.php?album_id=28982]wind up[/url] on Sundays
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| Sunioj Posts: 3894 |
Written by Syk on 13.10.2009 at 19:32 Yeah, thats right. Didn't feel like looking into the exact details but yeah.. Haven't heard of Forbidden until now, I will check it out.
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| RainFillsRivers Posts: 31  |
Quote:Quote: Amen brother, nothing is better than good ol Heavy Metal!!!
---- - Wrainth
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| Novas Posts: 234  |
New guy coming in the review convo !!! Since ya'll are thrash lovers like me, then ya'll should check out Warbringer, Evile, Destruction, Kreator, Sodom, & Lazarus A.D. (hard to find). Zetro is my favorite thrash singer..other than Warbringer's vocalist..since Exodus' Tempo of the Damned album. But on Tenet's debut, he tends to get annoying after a while. I wanna make a thrash metal band & i want Zetro to be the front man. But i got a question: Why did Zetro ever leave Exodus ? Was it cuz he quite or cuz he had fights with the members 
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| Novas Posts: 234 |
Well i take that back...Steve Souza has been my favorite trash singer since Testament's First Strike Still Deadly re-recorded version of Reign of Terror  ...That song is my favorite from Testament too ...I love playing it on the drums 
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| MiKill Posts: 7 |
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| RobHalford Posts: 37  |
The sound quality of this album from a physical copy is surprisingly good. The Youtube videos definitely don't do it justice.
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| Baz Anderson Staff Posts: 13254  |
Written by RobHalford on 16.02.2011 at 22:53 What do you expect from Youtube?
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| Destructo Posts: 198  |
Written by Derwood on 12.10.2009 at 08:13 Haha....perfect description there. Pissed-off Munchkin. So damn true.
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| Destructo Posts: 198 |
The musicianship on this album is just incredible. But the voclas can get get irritating after a while. That would be the only discernable drawback of the band. A slightly "growly" or "menacing" vocals would have been the right accompaniment to an otherwise ear-shatteringly awesome riff barrage !!!! But great album overall.
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| Baz Anderson Staff Posts: 13254 |
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| Freaktard Posts: 20  |
I'm surprised at the general dislike of Zetro's vocals on this album...they were one of the highlights of it for me.
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