COAL

Leprous are not a band who stands still; comparing this album to 2009's Tall Poppy Syndrome reveals substantial and well-honed artistic growth. The influences of the likes of Porcupine Tree and others which could be heard on the earlier album are now much more difficult to detect, Leprous' sound having taken on a unique cast which pits them as true originals. The closest comparison I can think of is "what if a more tasteful version of Muse went prog metal, having listened to heaps of Porcupine Tree?", but even that doesn't encapsulate all the dimensions available here - for instance, it would obscure the extreme metal influences of the eerie closing track, Contaminate Me.

All very well, but I've found over time that I've become less and less taken with the album, its undeniably pristine production and technical accomplishment not quite translating to material which feels compelling to me. In particular, the sparser and more minimalistic approach, whilst compelling at first, over time feels increasingly hollow.