LEPROUS

Leprous even dare to explore the domain of the anthemic with the opening track, and to emphasize it even more on the choral section of 'Faceless', something that they are not so well-known for, and through the expansion of their musical vocabulary, show a great tendency for synth pomp, extremely overblown on the challenging 'Self-Satisfied Lullaby'. Even if creatively bold musical passages are present all throughout, the record mainly lacks in songwriting, with the drums standing a little more at the back, and even if there are quite a few technically intriguing moments, like the endings of 'I Hear the Sirens' or 'Like a Sunken Ship,' what becomes evident from 'Melodies of Atonement' is that Leprous are still stronger in the heavier and more intense moments, which they have occasionally been able to successfully mesh with playful, minimal and atmospheric instrumental build-ups; a strategy that generally tends to be a double-edged sword.

'Melodies' is nevertheless a good album that showcases the stylistic diversity of the band as well as their ability to create innovatively minimal and emotional progressive rock, incorporating a semi-art-pop approach towards the composition of heavy music.

The good thing is that sounds really fresh. You won't find a copy & paste product. The band is still trying to evolve. Einar is solid as [%*!#]. The band is friggin tight.

Silently Walking Alone, Self-Satisfied Lullaby, Unfree my soul, Limbo kicks ass.

The best is yet to come. I wouldn't be suprised the next release touches Coal, The Congregation or Malina magnitude. Way to go Leprous!!!!

Was I ever let down.

The album kicks off with "Silently Walking Alone", a decent opener that boasts some bouncing, grooving riffs and a bombastic singalong chorus. It's probably the high point of the album, though I note it sits closer to the Euro-pop- metal style of Amaranthe than it does to any progressive metal tradition. That's not a crime, but it's not exactly my preference. The album nosedives sharply after that opener, turning into an amorphous blob of Sad Pretty Boy brooding. Half-mumbled vocals sit atop bland electronics, a drawn-out slither through dull, lifeless, and unimpressive melodies set to limp bass drum samples and sub-bass drones. Is Einar Solberg almost always a treat to listen to? Yes. Is his seemingly half-hearted attempt at his usual vocal stunts enough to save this from being a boring slog? Not at all.

If you like progressive metal, you can skip this. If you like Imagine Dragons, consider giving this a shot.

Track Rating: Silently Walking Alone (6), Atonement (5), My Specter (4), I Hear the Sirens (5), Like a Sunken Ship (6), Limbo (6), Faceless (5), Starlight (6), Self-Satisfied Lullaby (5), Unfree My Soul (5).

Overall Rating: 5.3/10, or, 2 Stars, rounded down.

"Limbo" wants to be commercial rock with a catchy swing, a monolithic synth and the nervous guitar that accompanies the dynamite drums; the finale with the rise brings grandiloquence and recalls the beautiful Leprousian hours. "Faceless" in bis repetita mode with a sad verse and the energetic chorus; the suave voice of Einar light and finally a solo worthy of the name, dark, vibrant. The catchy and stripped-down chorus, the hypnotic air, between ballad and musical torment. The finale is grandiose, explosive, demonstrative, to listen to religiously in concert. "Starlight" with a slow rise, a solo that marks during the crescendo; a rare latent break to settle down a little before taking the brutal prog metal path supported by his symphonic, theatrical voice. The second solo guitar comes out of the relative torpor with an ethereal ending. "Self-Satisfied Lullaby" a capella religious seconded by the velvety keyboard; a subtle, syncopated, latent synth-pop air with strange tones bordering on tribal accompanying Einar's unique voice. Dreamy voice, inserting itself into our mind, our ears, our unconscious; a beat like a break before the return of the synth and the high voice, on stripped-down LEPROUS. "Unfree My Soul" for the finale, a solemn ode piece with a drum pad prevalent on the soft, languid, intoxicating voice, like his father whom he accompanied to the end. A way to free one's soul, atonement being the only therapeutic way; an intense emotional title. Note "Claustrophobic" as a bonus on CD.

LEPROUS is direct, heavy, without frills; It is stripped down I insist and more focused on the explosions of impressive instruments and vocals. An opus that marks a break with their progressive enjoyable drifts of before, to be considered as a testament laid bare; violent and quickly flayed, ideal for those looking for the metallic side above all. Origin on Profilprog.

Vocalist and primary songwriter Einar Solberg said he wanted to strip away the orchestral elements that have been prominent on their last few records for this release, and that experiment largely pays dividends. Melodies of Atonement is Leprous's best album since The Congregation, though I wouldn't quite call this "good" as a whole. They're on the right path, however!

I'll start with the good parts of this album. Firstly, and most impressively, there are multiple songs here that I would call "good" without qualification. Aphelion and Pitfalls only had one of those apiece.

"Like a Sunken Ship" is pretty solid. The intro has a subtle, bluesy funkiness to it, and the electronic flourishes call to mind latter-era Porcupine Tree or 2000s King Crimson soundscapes. The heavy parts of this song are the best music on the whole album, and Einar even busts out some growls here. Leprous's strength has always been their metallic side, so it's nice to hear them embrace it more than they have in recent years.

The following track, "Limbo", is the best overall composition on the record. I'll touch on this more in a moment, but the build-up here is quite nice. I like the gradual evolution from its quiet opening to its tumbling, powerful climax.

"Starlight" is another solid track. Einar's vocals are varied here, as opposed to his usual vacillation between willowy falsetto and belting his lungs out. The guitar work is fun and distinctive, and it reminds me a lot of the growling guitar lines in Pink Floyd's "One of These Days".

More broadly, I appreciate the album's overall heavier feel. Parts of this record could definitely be called metal, though most of it is not. Aphelion, Pitfalls, and Malina all suffered from timbral and textural monotony, which made them grate on me. When the only difference song-to-song is the particular pattern of LOUD-quiet, it gets old. Here, the dynamism feels a bit more impactful and purposeful.

Unfortunately, the mediocre outweighs the good here. I wouldn't call this album "bad," for the most part, but a lot of it is just sort of dull.

As on Aphelion, most cuts open with gentle electronics of some sort, and that gets tiring after a while. What's especially jarring is that on the first few cuts, they integrate dubstep-style wub-wub-wubs into their music. This instantly makes everything feel very dated, like it's from 2012. Melodies of Atonement can feel somewhat backward-looking at times, evoking acts like Muse. "Self Satisfied Lullaby" even reminds me of Imagine Dragons in certain parts.

Einar frequently uses his falsetto during quiet moments, and I just don't like that. His vocals in these parts will have a willowy, whispery quality to them, and I simply do not enjoy whispery vocals. It's why I can't enjoy Billie Eilish.

Speaking of this band's quiet moments, they continue to simply slam quiet and loud parts together on most songs. Build-up of any sort is rare. That sort of bombast usually feels unearned and flat. It doesn't evoke any sort of emotional reaction in me.

Leprous made clear improvements on this record over Aphelion. It's nice to see them dipping their toes more consistently back into heavier waters. The songwriting was a bit more varied here, too. Melodies of Atonement isn't without its drawbacks. The band's incessant alternations of quiet electronics with gentle vocals and over-the-top explosions of melodrama with no buildup loses any impact it may have had rather quickly. Several of the songs here come across as samey. I'm hoping Leprous continue to improve on their next album, whenever that may come out.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2024/08/26/album-review-leprous-melodies-of-atonement/

One of the most prominent sensations to emerge in the 2000s has surely been the Notodden based LEPROUS which formed in 2001 and after going through an unstable parade of members coming and going finally found its footing with a secure lineup that would release its debut TALL POPPY SYNDROME to critical acclaim in 2009. Christened by the blessings of Norway's own Ihsahn who just so happens to be the brother-in-law of lead singer / keyboardist Einar Solberg, the band developed its own unique sound which took the world of progressive metal by storm when this album was released. While the world of progressive metal was more or less focused on the Dream Theater approach of simply fusing the worlds of 80s power metal with 70s prog, LEPROUS clearly had bigger visions in mind without diving into the mosh pit of death metal or Norway's primary export of black metal.

Most notable for its wide swath of influences that transcended the limitations of the status quo, LEPROUS single-handedly gave the entire world of progressive metal a big boost with influences from the contemporary and retro alike but most astoundingly polished them all into a stylistic approach that made LEPROUS stand out from the beginning. TALL POPPY SYNDROME delivered a set of eight well-crafted tracks that each showcased a completely different approach in engendering some of the catchiest art pop infused hooks enshrouded by the most demanding complexities of the world of progressive rock. The band delivered an invigorating palette of shifting dynamics that allowed soft lush melodic developments that explosively could erupt into fully fueled metal aggression replete with the occasional death metal growl or extreme metal gratuity.

With the majority of the tracks extending well past the six or seven minute mark, LEPROUS displayed its amazing talent of crafting outstandingly brilliant compositions backed up by the most inscrutable talent for animating it all to a higher level of craftsmanship. The album opens with "Passing" and then doesn't drop the ball until the final tender piano melodies that close "White." While starting off with somewhat of an alternative rock type guitar grunge with progressive rock styled keyboards, Einar Solberg immediately showcases his impressive vocal range and the ability to control the most subtle of changes at a drop of a pin. The track, like all of them, meanders through various motifs yet remains cohesively structured thus showcasing the art of a true musical compositional architecture that allows the delicate balance of repetition and variation to engage in a euphoric cosmic dance.

While references to Opeth for the extreme contrasts between soft and heavy and comparisons to Porcupine Tree in terms of aural ingenuity in the tones, timbres and production values do resonate as well as Tool alt rock strumming structures, LEPROUS delivered a uniquely flawless execution that amalgamated so many disparate influences and forged them together so seamlessly in their unique alchemical process that it's impossible to ever pinpoint the band sounding like any other. The strongest suit of LEPROUS certainly has to be the use of dynamics with all the musicians and vocal parts ping-ponging from one extreme to the other under the unified procession of tight melodic constructs that never deviate from the larger focus all the while covering the spectrum of possibilities in between.

While the melodic developments are totally logical and instantly enduring, TALL POPPY SYNDROME excelled at the art of surprise with a firm command of the use of silence, syncopation and the innovative use of instrumental interplay that found each musician delivering the perfect contributions to a particular motif or cadence when call to do so. The ability to mutate from a dreamy form of arty prog to the most abrasive technical metal wizardry all within the confines of a single track elevated LEPROUS to the top ranks of the world of prog and metal and set the bar even higher for crafty compositional skills and the actual ability to bring it all to fruition with outstanding performances of the material at hand. Too many prog metal bands are capable of composing excellent material but often fall short in the delivery department. TALL POPPY SYNDROME simply sounds like a flawless execution of complex material that remains extremely accessible despite all the artistic liberties and cleverly crafted chord progressions coupled with the genre blending that infuse its 63 minute playing time.

This is really an intoxicating album and one that continues to get better as time goes on. Like a nice vintage of high quality wine, TALL POPPY SYNDROME seems to only get better with subsequent exposures by offering a standard of progressive metal so high that very few bands have been able to match ever since which including LEPROUS itself. This is one of those albums that i never tire of. It's perfect from beginning to end with a never-ending variation of piano rolls, guitar techniques, vocal gymnastics and drumming prowess. The melodies sink in deep and Solberg's vocals are about as good as it gets. Each track differs and offers a new roster of a fertile wellspring of varying elements that never repeat themselves. While some of the tracks will grab you quicker than others, repeated exposure to this classic will allow the more evasive tracks to work their magic. One of the most impressive metal debuts ever!

Well, it could have been. With 'The Congregation' Leprous delivered their longest album at the time, clocking in at sixty-five minutes (or seventy, if you include the bonus track), with a total of eleven album tracks, most of which run between the six or seven-minute mark. The music is mainly composed by the band's main man, Einar Solberg, who also co-wrote most of the lyrics together with guitar player Tor Oddmund Suhrke. Right off the bat, the listener is immersed in the dark and uninviting atmosphere of the album, through opening track 'The Price', a math rock-influenced instrumental intro that leads to the beautifully sang verse and the great and memorable chorus after that. This song has gone down as one of the most recognizable and typically Leprous tracks, and it is by all means, one of the great tracks on the album. The buzzing guitars interact tightly with the technical drumming of Kolstad, topped by the flawless vocal performance of Solberg. Not to mention that this is one of the musts in their live shows. 'Third Law' is the following track, depicting perfectly the band's flamboyant way of combining electronic sounds with dazzling metal riffing. Certainly this is one of the greatest cuts in the band's entire catalogue. Next up is 'Rewind', a powerful track that builds up and climaxes in an impressive manner once again, this is the first occasion on the album where we get some harsh vocals around the last part of the song. Menacing and haunting keyboard work so far on the album, dynamic and extravagant drumming, as Baard Kolstad is introducing himself in the most impressive way, a very promising beginning to the album, and an indication that the band is tightly progressing into firmly securing their place in the prog metal pantheon.

Then comes the nearly 8-minute piece 'The Flood'. This song is quite paradoxical as it features some of the most interesting instrumental moments, more specifically, the build-up around the chorus and its presentation, yet remains entirely uneventful and leaves you feeling tired, hopelessly trying to justify the length of the song, and finding almost nothing to take out of it. This is where the album goes entirely in the wrong direction, and with the exception of a few moments of clarity and brilliance later on, you are feeling boxed, encapsulated by the hefty and sometimes solemn sounds of 'The Congregation'. 'Triumphant' does unfortunately give off the impression of a reworked outtake from 'Bilateral', the band's fantastic second studio album from 2011. 'Within My Fence' is a mediocre song for the band's level, expendable also for the album in general, given the personality of the rest of the songs on here. Same goes for the hardly memorable piece titled 'Red', which is a bit chaotic, nothing incredible or new for what concerns the capabilities of the band. 'Slave' is another one of the highlights, similar to the opening track in a way, it combines Leprous' electronic inclinations with their usual dynamic and avant-garde songwriting. The rest of the album is in general more tedious, forgettable, unnecessary; 'Moon' could have been cut down in length, but it is what it is.

What is most interesting about this record is that despite the fact that it is a very good album with some impressive and iconic moments, it is a general low for the band, which has previously showcased much greater skills in songwriting, innovation, production. In general, the album is overlong, very often overdone, and makes you lose interest too quickly. Singled out, the band members' performances are quite excellent, but the album as it is does not really work so well like other Leprous efforts. It has somehow ended up being extremely overrated, and I could attribute this to the couple of highlights sprinkled across. Great potential but compromising realization, 'The Congregation' is not as excellent as many would consider it to be.

I have not minced words about my disappointment in Leprous's recent musical direction. To quote my coverage of their 2019 album, Pitfalls, "This album [%*!#]ing sucks." My thoughts on Malina, their 2017 release, aren't an awful lot kinder. I saw them on tour twice in 2018 (opening first for BTBAM and later for Haken), and the experience was dull, to say the least. Pared-back arrangements and vocalist Einar Solberg going, "Ooh-aah" as pulsing white lights blinded me? Disappointing. Both sets were unvaried in their tonal and dynamic palettes: LOUD-quiet-LOUD-quiet, without any deviations to spice it up. Pitfalls was like a studio version of this experience.

Naturally, I didn't have high hopes for Aphelion. I was fully anticipating this would be another micro-review, like my coverage of Pitfalls, or an Odds & Ends entry. But I'm familiar enough with the band's output, and I found enough to discuss, that I could write a full-length review.

Spoiler alert: this isn't going to be a kind review. It's not going to be as brutal as Pitfalls or my coverage of The Final Cut in my Pink Floyd Deep Dive, but Aphelion is a dull, uninspired record that goes on for too long.

Consensus among people such as myself, who do not like Leprous's current direction, is that Einar dominates the songwriting process too much. His vocals, while strong from a technical perspective, are a major issue with the band's music. His singing is usually overwrought and overdramatic, and his insistence upon using layers of wordless vocals gets real old real fast. There's little variation in his singing, and the backing vocals are deployed uncreatively.

Aphelion isn't wholly without decent moments. Many tracks open with subdued and pleasant electronic textures (though this trend becomes detrimentally predictable after appearing on six separate songs). "Silhouette" features some strong instrumental moments, and the vocals aren't too distracting, either (at least when Einar isn't belting his lungs out). "The Silent Revelation" opens with a really good groove that harkens back to the band's earlier days, but unfortunately the momentum of the song is inexplicably undercut before it is fully realized. Kneecapping the song's flow in this case added nothing positive, and it never recovers, despite having some good musical themes.

The closing "Nighttime Disguise" is easily the strongest cut on Aphelion and the only track I'd unambiguously call "good." It was written with fan input regarding things like structure, time signature, and key. And shockingly, listening to the fans resulted in something enjoyable! It's got technical, energetic riffs to entice the listener, there's varied internal structure, and Einar even does some unclean vocals near the end. This song shows the promise of what non-metallic Leprous could be, which makes their current, underwhelming output that much more frustrating. They clearly can still write progressive rock, but Einar just wants atmospherics and ooh-aahs.

Beyond that handful of highlights, Aphelion is not a strong release. It's not as punishingly repetitive as Pitfalls or as generic as Malina, but I still don't like it.

As mentioned above, a majority of songs have very similar openings, and that pattern extends to their broader structures as well. In short, this is a very predictable album.

Einar's worst tendencies are exemplified in the opening "Running Low". It's actually one of the better songs on the record, but his singing is hilariously overwrought. He is trying to put way more weight into this song than it needs, and it comes off as downright distracting. This mistake is a frequent issue on Aphelion. He will have these grand, dramatic moments that feel completely unearned. There was no build to it. There's nothing underpinning it. It is as pure as bloat can get.

Most of Aphelion sounds phoned-in. I took rather extensive notes while listening to it, but most songs wound up with similar summaries: predictable structure, alternatingly too-pared-down and undeservedly-bombastic, and [%*!#]ing dial the intensity down, Einar. Not everything needs to be so overdramatic.

I don't like this record, but if you're /r/progmetal, you'll probably like this unprogressive, non-metallic release of faux-artsy radio rock.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2021/09/01/album-review-leprous-aphelion/

Indeed we could hear in the order: 'Have You Ever?', 'The Price', 'Angel', 'Observe The Train', 'On Hold', 'Castaway Angels', 'From The Flame', a song chosen by the public... which I forgot the title there, taken by the completely surreal atmosphere of said concert, in which Einar throws a paper in the crowd so that the lucky winner chooses his title; it fell on my right neighbor slightly paralyzed by this chance. Then 'Out of Here', 'Slave', 'Distant Bells', 'Below', 'Nighttime Disguise' and 'The Sky is Red' in an apocalyptic finale where it's actually red in the room but very intense white on both first rows. A concert that is intense, paradoxical, between moments of latency, relative calm and apocalyptic borderline moments, but always with extraordinary musicality.

Well, you will have understood that today's prog has audiences thanks to a few exceptional groups of which LEPROUS is a part; at worst take the album, the LP, at best go see them while they are still spinning, prog, dark metal is what we say and the live sound is much better than on his channel.

A decade ago when I was a PA regular, I reviewed two of Leprous' early albums and in both I said that the band was vastly talented but yet to find their sound. By "Pitfalls," they had found it. Einar Solberg's voice had moved from very strong to mind-blowing, and whether you liked it or not, the band was using that asset to full effect. By this album, Solberg is able to pull off the full range of pop / R&B acrobatics along with his metal angst, and the band uses both. Many dislike the pop / crossover approach of the early parts of the album, but to me it feels like a band that is embracing evolution. None of the songs here feel like "selling out," they feel like a band that is truly combining multiple genres to write great songs. The pop sensibilities make the melodies and songwriting take center stage, as it should.

The prog is not gone. On some songs like "Observe the Train," the song is straight pop ballad, but the prog roots come through as ear candy. On others like the opener "Below," the band alternates between prog metal rhythms and melodicism, creating a modern take on prog that foreshadows the currently blowing up sound of Sleep Token who rightfully cites Leprous as a major influence. There is a bit of a dark trippy-ness everywhere on the album, which I imagine makes Leprous a force live now.

And so we have a very solid, inventive, truly modern crossover prog album. But then at last comes "The Sky is Red." I consider this the best prog metal song of the last 5 years and one of the best ever. It has complex rhythms, heavy guitars that allude to djentiness without falling into the cookbook, and hypercomplex drumming. But over the top Einar is simultaneously virtuosic and so emotive. And just when you feel like the album ended on a colossal fire burst, we get the odd time bursts that evolve slowly, methodically to a brutal breakdown unlike anything I've heard elsewhere. The first time I heard the isolated keys begin the riff, it seemed like the band was completely in free time. But as band slowly enters, the rhythm make more and more sense, and pummels you until it seems like you've known the vibe your whole life. It took several listens before my ear could impose the rhythm on the riff initially, and now that it does I yearn a little bit for the sense of surprise and discovery that I got on those early listens. This section may the only time in recent years I listened to music and thought "What just happened?" in delight.

Part of the pop / modern / crossover move is the incorporation of electronic even including some programmed drums. This might seem a little strange considering the immense talent of the players, but this is where music is at now. These are the sounds of today. It makes this album feel new, forward thinking, rather than retro or stuck in the past.

Congratulations on a band that already had some success and talent choosing to continue to up their game and evolve.