COAL

Full disclosure, I'm a massive fan of this band. They are my favorite fully active band in this exact moment in time. They have consistently topped themselves in an ever evolving sound they've developed all their own and improved with each and every release (for the most part). To my great pleasure, it seems likely they have a contract that requires them to release a new album every two years because their release schedule is like clockwork.

Now, as for this album, i'm reviewing this one after the release of 'The Congregation' and 'Malina' albums, and in those reviews you would see that i had praised them as near perfection, and literal perfection in the case of 'Malina'. This one is damn good, but it sees the band in a transition period. This album is broken up into two versions of the band, the older Leprous that found itself a thinking mans death metal band; see 'Tall Poppy Syndrome', and the Leprous of today utilizing more atmosphere, subtlety, clean vocals, dynamic range, and breathing room in song structure rather than all out go go go found in much metal they took inspiration from originally.

Phase 1 (the original Leprous sound): The album starts just like the previous one. Foe, Chronic, Coal - These songs could have been ripped straight from 'Bi-Lateral', in fact either they actually were bleed overs from previous ideas or they may be there in the beginning of the this album because they are what the fans were expecting... more of the previous and more of the same. I like to think that Leprous was actually told that they needed some more 'Bi- Lateral' esque songs at least in the beginning of their album if they wanted to then experiment with a new sound and direction later in the album. And they do.

Phase 2 (cue the new Leprous): In comes The Cloak and we see the band as a whole take a back seat to Einar Solbergs' vocals. Gorgeous. Who knew? Well we've seen glimpses of this before, but really Leprous never allowed the vocals to take center stage in such a way. This is the turning point. There's no going back now, the band has revealed the big surprise, they are clearly reaching toward a different style of music entirely and here we go with the rest of the album

Phase 2 continued: The Valley, Salt, Echo - This is Leprous experimenting with the new sound that they would later expand upon for the future. Subtle keyboard textures, vocals take the lead melodically with a quite clean sound, electronic sounds that people like to now say sound 'Radiohead-esque' and swells of dynamics that flow throughout the length of each song.

You know what i've noticed though? The drums and bass take a backseat in these songs. As a drummer myself, i clearly see that Tobias hits his heads significantly less in these songs than in any of the previous songs and any previous albums. In fact, i would say that he has almost nothing to do on these songs. Why? Because he's not that kind of drummer. I would know, i play quite a bit like him. I trained myself on Dream Theater style metal. There isn't much dynamic range there. No ghost notes to be had. Subtlety on a drumset is an incredibly difficult thing to perfect, especially if you still want to be technically impressive. This is something jazz drummers do so well. Think Gavin Harrison of Porcupine Tree, or Bill Bruford. Tobias was out of his element playing in these songs - he faded into the background. He is no longer the driving force, Leprous isn't playing death metal anymore, how fast you can hit that double bass pedal isn't going to cut it. I do believe this may have been a deciding factor as to why either Tobias left the band, or was removed, i don't follow music drama i don't know how that all occurred but i can tell you with certainty that the drummer that replaced him is not only just technically better but also much more suited toward the sound a mature Leprous wanted to reach. I'm not bass player, but i do know from playing in many jazz bands that the bassist and drummer are really one unit so i wouldn't be surprised if the axing of the drummer required a new bassist as well - every ying needs a yang and the new addition of a drummer to propel this band into the future would require a counterpart equally matched and perfect symbiosis.

Phase 3 (The blackness rises from the depths one last time): In the last moments of the song Echo, the song fades out to nothing so gradually it is obvious that the album should end there? No. Leprous has one last hurrah for their fans of their previous sound and that is the final track

Contaminate Me - This song is probably the only true black metal song Leprous has ever done at the time of writing this review. The drums of Tobias go all out one last time, he blasts the heads and kicks his feet as fast as his limbs can take him. The vocalist screams with a wail so sinister this song could be mistaken for a song from something off of Enslaved 'Isa" album, or any from that of Acturus. This is Leprous saying goodbye to their heritage. It is time for Leprous to clip their demon wings and go forth into a sound all their own.

This is an excellent piece of music, even if it gets the honor of being a collection of songs that clearly do not match in terms of overall band philosophy. For better or worse. For me, it is for the better that Leprous break the shackles that bound them to a purely death metal sound.

And greatness was just on the misty clouded horizon, out of the depths we crawl.