Leprous do prog otherwise. Relatively than jam 10 million riffs right into a unmarried tune or display the arena some swanky new sweep arpeggios, this Norwegian collective use their skills to take one motif and make it compelling for mins on finish. Their tracks upload layers of dextrous guitars, electronics and symphonies to essentially the most affecting melody, and so they’re steadily hallowed as trailblazers inside experimental song for it.
Einar Solberg and the lads have launched seven albums since beginning, with quantity 8, Melodies Of Atonement, coming in August. So, what higher time to seem again and reconsider Leprous’ dynamic musical adventure thus far? From debut Tall Poppy Syndrome to newest Aphelion, that is their each (extraordinarily excellent) full-length file ranked through brilliance.
7. Tall Poppy Syndrome (2009)
Glance, one album needed to come closing, OK? Tall Poppy Syndrome, although it nonetheless falls beneath the “modern” banner, is nigh unrecognisable from the Leprous we all know as of late. While the band of their present shape are an increasing number of dedicated to episodic songs, this debut used to be strewn with idea-stacked excessive/prog steel suites. 99 p.c of musicians that deal in such issues would kill to have made tracks as delicate as Passing or as explosive as Now not Even A Title, particularly on their first cross. Then again, this used to be nonetheless very a lot an outfit finding their identification, and it seldom hits as exhausting because the immediacy in their later subject matter.
6. Pitfalls (2019)
By means of 2019, Leprous had lengthy since divorced themselves from the “modern steel” categorisation that have compatibility them initially in their profession, and Pitfalls noticed them push even additional clear of the style. I Lose Hope used to be a bouncing hip-hop banger and At The Backside pulsed with trap-like beats, whilst the emotive Far away Bells swelled with symphonic textures. In consequence, although, guitarists Tor Oddmund Suhrke and Robin Ognedal and drummer Baard Kolstad felt underutilised, best attending to thieve the display all through the scrambling Foreigner and the latter part of The Sky Is Pink. Some guns within the Leprous arsenal went untouched right here, regardless of the compositional craft all through.
5. Bilateral (2011)
Bilateral marked each an finish and a starting. On behemoths like Compelled Access and Waste Of Air – labyrinthine, heavy, laced with noise and jazz – Leprous fulfilled the promise of Tall Poppy Syndrome, doubling down on their maximalist techniques. Then again, there have been additionally songs that charted the extra direct sound to come back: Stressed and Bought Style particularly have been nuanced but infectious moments. As a result of this distinction, early lovers steadily title Bilateral as this band’s magnum opus, and we’re greater than figuring out of why. To our tastes, alternatively, this represented extra of a mid-transitional transfer than a masterpiece in its personal proper.
4. Aphelion (2021)
Aphelion used to be the extra even-handed sibling of Pitfalls. Leprous’ 7th album persevered the symphonic experiments of its predecessor, but additionally discovered house within the combine for guitars and drums, making it really feel like a lot more of a collaborative effort. This masterclass in texture certainly benefited from the stability, particularly when Castaway Angels ascended from acoustics and vocals to an orchestra of evocative rock song and strings. But, it used to be the galloping Silent Revelation and the extra electro-symphonic Shadow Facet in series that communicated the Norwegians had nailed the sound they have been striving in opposition to. Issue within the impossible to resist melodies of Out Of Right here and Midnight Conceal and also you get an absolute victory.
3. Malina (2017)
Malina used to be precisely the album Leprous had to make at that time in their profession. The band had up to now scored a marvel hit with The Congregation unmarried The Value and, whether or not deliberately or now not, this listenable successor capitalised. It boasted a bunch of chic anthems, particularly From The Flame with its (gasp) 3 choruses and four/4 time signature. Concurrently, there used to be no dumbing down within the songwriting division, as communicated through the looming aria that used to be The Closing Milestone, in addition to the polyrhythmic throbs of Coma. That symphonic post-rock finale to Caught is solely fucking absolute best, too.
2. Coal (2013)
The primary notes of Coal’s opening lower, Foe, have been an rapid announcement that Leprous’ priorities had shifted. In lieu of warped prog, listeners were given bombarded with easy, staccato blasts of sound, rapidly joined through soulful vocals wailing out a hummable hook. This power for melody outlined the album, the band in a position to weave repeated choruses, even in the course of the seven-minute extravaganza Continual and the screaming, all-metal barrage that used to be Contaminate Me. The Cloak, arguably Leprous’ first actually standout unmarried, painted essentially the most correct image of the long run, construction its increasing layers and plush making a song on height of 3 easy guitar notes.
1. The Congregation (2015)
Positive, that is the predictable primary select, however from time to time a call is predictable as a result of we all know it’s the correct factor to do. It doesn’t matter what you’re keen on Leprous for – be it their modern fearlessness, top-notch hooks or symphonic and digital undercurrents – The Congregation flaunted it. From the second one The Value offered an addictive vocal melody atop off-rhythmic guitar paintings, it used to be transparent that intelligence and heart-stopping songwriting would are living a really perfect marriage throughout this file.
Each and every tune, from the stampeding 3rd Regulation to the minimalist Decrease, had a formidable melody at its leading edge to beckon the listener again. Then, after they got here again, they spotted the impressively technical touches, just like the fierce drumming underneath Rewind, or the digital beat of The Flood getting picked up and carried to the end line on electrical guitar. Whether or not you have been listening for the primary time or hundredth, one thing new would almost certainly dazzle you.
Thus, The Congregation (and particularly The Value) earned Leprous a broader attraction than ever earlier than and, additionally, represents a stability the band are nonetheless making an attempt to recapture 9 years onwards. For those who ever need to get into a controversy over the most productive prog album of the 2010s, this is without doubt one of the first discs we’d slam onto the desk.
