It’s hard to explain what it’s like to struggle with your mental health to someone who hasn’t experienced it themselves. Twice in recent years a musician has managed to express the feelings it is so hard to communicate verbally, through their music and lyrics. One is That Joe Payne, who has three songs on his By Name. By Nature. album that perfectly encapsulate how it feels to be lost and then to find yourself again. The other artist who wears their heart on their sleeve and openly delves into their personal struggles is Einar Solberg, through his solo work and his band Leprous.
2019’s Pitfalls is like a musical open wound, honest, frank and extremely relatable. That album was also the doorway to embracing a wider musical palate than pure prog metal, with ambient electronic sounds and pop vocal stylings. It also included strings and brass to round out the album even further. That record was followed by Aphelion, which again lent into strings and pop vocals, while replacing some of the electronic sounds with piano, to give an almost singer songwriter feel at times.
The new album, their eighth, Melodies of Atonement moves the band’s sound on once again, this time losing the strings and embracing the electronic aspects and sound design elements instead.
“The beginning of the process of writing melodies for the new album started right after our Aphelion tour in March last year,” says frontman/songwriter Einar Solberg. “I came home from tour and I started writing material for this album. The goal for that album was to remove all the orchestral elements and focus everything more around the actual members of the band. The symphonic parts, I will take further in my solo project later on. It’s a change of path in Leprous for sure. The goal was to be more straight to the point and more pure, in a way, to emphasise our qualities more, by adding less.”
The result is as immediate as the band at their most accessible, while also touching on the heaviness that was always evident on their early records. What I love about the current incarnation of the band, which is so evident in a live setting, is that heaviness doesn’t have to mean a wall of sound from guitars. That’s despite having two guitarists in their ranks. On this record there are electronic sounds and keyboard refrains which pack just as much as a punch as a big guitar moment would. As songwriter and vocalist Solberg is a keyboard player that makes perfect sense. It also helps that he is one of the best singers on the planet, with a vocal range that is as absurd as it is effecting. The production on this album, by long time collaborator David Castilo is just as exquisite. There are layers and layers of music that you discover more intently on every listen.
The album opens with the first two singles, Silently Walking Alone and Atonement. These two opening singles showcase the way Leprous use light and shade, bringing you in close with a quiet moment, before turning things up to eleven. This approach is stamped across many of the songs, often starting subtly and building until the largest moments. It’s the third single that has really gotten under my skin, Like a Sunken Ship. I’ve had the la la la la la la la, la la la la refrain from that song bouncing round my head for weeks.
This song, more than any other, encapsulates the overall tone of Melodies of Atonement, short, sharp and powerful. Unassuming and groovy, until it hits you over the head, right when the pyros kick in during the music video. Then Einar’s beautiful vocals, twist and subvert into a guttural growl, that comes at the perfect moment in the overall sound. The journey this song takes you on in just over four minutes is palpable. The bass line on it is just as infectious as the backing vocals, which will be earworming their way into your head for weeks. Limbo is another really catchy earworm, with the “Fireball Fireball, flying above all” lyric coming through strongly.
Leprous’s writing often uses repetition, songs can be built up from a bassline, drum fill, or electronic drone that keeps coming back, even after the song builds around it. A lyrical line can be repeated multiple times until it becomes a mantra, making it impossible not to end up repeating it back to them yourself. This is reminiscent of modern pop music, dance records, film soundtracks and even loop pedal artists, giving you one thing to latch onto and then building other elements around it so that it becomes fresh and new, while remaining familiar. Another thing that I noticed on this record, which reminded me of dance music was the way things tend to build to a big crescendo, before dropping back down into a repeated rhythm. It doesn’t feel tied to the verse, chorus structure and relies more on builds and drops. It helps to make this album grab hold of the listener and demand multiple plays. I’m sure without the time signature changes, and obvious prog trappings this might put some people off. For me, bringing in all these influences makes this far more progressive, than simply aping the defined prog sounds of the past.
My Specter wonderfully describes how it feels to start to put things back together and to feel better, then to be hit with the darkness again. It’s an almost tangible feeling. The double bass and piano intro (although no double bass credit is on the album, so perhaps I’m mistaken) to Faceless gives it a smoky bar vibe, which helps to separate it from the rest of the record and give it a different vibe. Even when it ramps up it still has a distinct sounds all of its own, leading you to see mournful guitar the helps make this song it a real highlight of the album.
Where the lyrics on Pitfalls resonated with me deeply, I didn’t take as many specifics away from the words used on this record. Emotionally however, it connected in a similar way. If Pitfalls and Aphelion are the freeze and flight responses to the threat of depression and anxiety, Melodies of Atonement feels like Fight.
With the theme of atonement and lyrics that include “Oh Lord I’m cast aside”, “Been seen as a rebel, the work of the devil” and “Can I come back to my saviour?” there’s an almost religious undertone to the record lyrically. Though not overt enough to put this atheist off Neal Morse style! At times I wonder if there is a tale being woven about the battle between the ego and self-doubt that rages inside most creative individuals.
There’s a conciseness at play here which really works in the record’s favour, none of the songs is longer than six minutes or so. On Aphelion I almost felt like the album was crying out for a long epic track, like Pitfalls’ closer The Sky is Red, but here I never felt that way. They pack so much emotion and sound design into each song, that they never outstay their welcome. Like a collection of perfectly crafted short stories. Does that also make the record less prog? Perhaps. Does it work on this record? Undoubtedly. This album is on a par with Pitfalls and outdoes Aphelion in a number of ways. Aphelion felt like lots of good songs, whereas this feels like one cohesive record.
The rhythm section is another key component of the band’s sound. Simen Børven and Baard Kolstad working together perfectly. Kolstad isn’t just a great drummer, he’s a consummate percussionist, using all elements of his kit to help evoke a sound or feeling. In some ways this record is the opposite of what a lot of people consider prog and prog metal to be. It lacks the big solos, the moments when one instrument and musician are given their special time to shine. Instead this is a real band record, with each of the players working for the benefit of the songs and to compliment and not overshadow each other.
A bit like Haken did last year, Leprous have taken elements from their earlier and later sounds to create something distinctly them, but unique and different. The return to more of a band sound has given Leprous a real lift and this record encapsulates the heady rush that seeing them live gives you. It’s no real surprise that one of the most interesting and innovative bands around have released a very strong contender for album of the year. And possibly the high point of their already very successful career as a band.
TRACK LISTING
01. Silently Walking Alone (4:05)
02. Atonement (4:49)
03. My Specter (3:55)
04. I Hear The Sirens (4:31)
05. Like A Sunken Ship (4:04)
06. Limbo (5:56)
07. Faceless (6:25)
08. Starlight (6:09)
09. Self-Satisfied Lullaby (6:21)
10. Unfree My Soul (5:21)
Total Time – 51:42
MUSICIANS
Einar Solberg – Vocals, Keyboards
Tor Oddmund Suhrke – Guitars
Robin Ognedal – Guitars
Simen Børven – Bass
Baard Kolstad – Drums
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: InsideOut Music
Country of Origin: Norway
Date of Release: 30th August 2024