Leprous
The Congregation

There are about as many nice people from Norway as there are good bands from that nation, this quartet with leprosy are gathering a congregation for their fourth album. For this one they have a new drummer and they repeat the darkish cover artwork, I miss the funny artwork from Bilateral that was released back in 2011. It looks kind of bleak, this cover art. I think this is one of those band that I have really come to like through my work for this Hallowed webzine, I have known them since their Bilateral album which was a great album just as the following album Coal so it wasn’t without some expectations I took on this album.

It is progressive metal, quite catchy yet quite complex while still being fairly easy to take in even if you are not the most devoted fan of the progressive metal genre. There are eleven tracks on this album, playing time just over the hour showing a fair deal of variation and depth. There is a trace of darkness just like the one we heard on the Coal album; maybe it is the Norwegian weather that brings out this darkness of the soul. With great sound and an excellent singer who shows lots of power and stature, probably one of the better singers in the genre and of course as good progressive metal bands go they show an excellent production. This is surely an album by quality musicians that also shows some great song writing skills. But sure, maybe a playing time over the hour is a bit on the long side for many, but then again progressive bands do have a tendency to make long albums and though these guys don’t fall in the complexity trap they do sort of fall in the long album trap.

I think that this is a great album and with it Leprous strengthen their position as one of the best progressive metal bands of the modern era, certainly one of the best in Scandivia even though they do have competition from a Danish band I am about to review when this review is done and some other great bands from around these parts of the world. It is also great to see that there is something worthwhile coming from out westerly neighbours and not just oil and a self-important attitude. I think that with this album Leprous cement their place as the possible top name when it comes to Norwegian progressive metal, it has everything this album, darkness, emotion, complexity, simplicity, energy and excellence. It also has a last song that shouldn’t have been, they should have skipped that one as it is a snoozer of a song and it makes the overall feel of the album much less appealing than it should have been had we been given a better ending. With that said though I think it is an album that no fan of progressive metal, or great music should miss – I think it is very worth looking at for all fans of great music.

There are eleven strong tracks on this album with the ending one being not up to standard of the other ten and with a pair of tracks standing out a bit more than the rest of the album. One of these standout tracks is the opening track The Price that is a great opening track and a wonderful start of this album where singer Solberg really shines. Another one of these excellent tracks is the penultimate track Down that is a wonderful track and the one that should bring this album to a close and had it been I would have thought the album even better. Now I don’t think this album is quite up to the standard of its predecessor but it isn’t close enough and it certainly is a testament to Leprous as a great band that is well worth getting to know.

HHHHHHH