Leprous
Malina

One of my favourite bands, Norwegian heroes Leprous are returning with their sixth studio album. An album they call Malina, one that has a different graphical look compared with the earlier albums – I think it looks more exciting. For this album the label states: “they followed their conviction about creating music that feels right in the moment, which they consider to be the core of all true musical expression.” I think that has been a defining feature throughout the time I have been listening to this band, they have always moved forward and never seem to have been happy to stay still and polish their established concept like too many other bands do. This album also took them much longer to record since they were adamant to find a certain sound – and I certainly think that they found something.

It is about as easy to describe the sound of Leprous as it is to describe a droplet of water or a snowflake – there isn’t any good accurate way to do it. But I think that progressive, imaginative, somewhat melancholic, grand, powerful, melodic and progressive rock/metal is about right. Varied and chaotic, yet structured and excellently produced. The vocalist Einar sings as brilliantly as he has always done and thanks to this brilliance I just shelled out a couple of hundred Swedish money for a 2-LP version of this album because I just can’t be without it.

This album is a bit more dynamic than its predecessors, maybe a more alive feeling, a bit less metal perhaps – more organic sound I would describe it as. I think this is the best sounding production they have put together this far, and the best album. This is Leprous at its best with a collection of excellent songs and excellent performance and production, the Norwegians certainly shows that you can keep moving while still retaining elements that seems established for the band. This is a fresh yet familiar sounding album, Leprous fans will recognise their heroes while still getting that great sense of novelty from a fresh sounding album – not an easy feat for any band to accomplish.

And as everything about this album is very great I find it hard to pick favourite but I like the very Leprousy track that is Captive, it is great. The ending track is quite phenomenal, I think the entire album is phenomenal and you will have to be looking with the biggest ever magnifying glass to find any flaws here – Leprous has simply made their best album to date and an excellent album, what more needs to be written?

HHHHHHH