First Impressions
If there ever was a face for transition albums, this would be it.
At this point, I'm incredibly familiar with both sides of this band. The wild and heavy Leprous, and the incredibly soft and experimental Leprous. Both are equally as progressive if you ask me, and though there have been very clear signs of their modern super soft sound in their early albums, it is incredible evident that this is the album where they said "All right, let's change our sound."
This album is a perfect, almost surgical mix of both of their styles. It has the super crazy rhythmic writing of The Congregation, the simple but beautiful moments that made Coal so incredible. It's layered with strings to the point where it feels much more like an art rock album than a metal one, as does... every single album they'd make after this.
And here's the thing with transitional albums, while they can absolutely blow expectations out of the water, I do feel like most times they show too many growing pains. I unfortunately think this album is a perfect example of that too.
Their sound here is much more polished and softened out than their previous works. Despite the fact that this still has 7 strings, breakdowns and some crazy rhythms, it doesn't really have a lot of bite. There was one moment in the first song that really made me do a stank face, but that was about it.
Similarly, while there is some majesty and beauty too, I think it's dragged down by it's heavier more crazy elements. It works in some songs, but others feel like they want to be the emotional powerhouses that they would later produce, like On Hold or Alleviate, but it's just not quite there yet.
This doesn't mean I disliked the album at all though. Overall I still think a rather weak album from them is miles above anything bad. There are some incredible songs here.
The strongest part of the album, if you ask me, is the beginning. A little unusual, since they usually save the best for last.
Bonnevile is as perfect as you can get with this hybrid sound. Off the bat, I adore the way they play with the harmonics on the bass, it is equally as beautiful as it is groovy and interesting. Bass harmonics are just on another level, they are a weakness of mine. And then the song just builds and builds until the mid point where it breaks into a genuinely earth shattering riff. I love how slow and monstrous it is, like a titan has just woken up and you can see his figure on the horizon.
Most of the good songs here tend to lean towards either the heavy or soft side of the band, but this one just rides that line perfectly. It's got a beautiful chorus, and really cool heavy and progressive ideas at the same time.
Stuck is absolutely incredible. It's got a super catchy and upbeat main riff, and that chorus... oh man. These are the kinds of choruses that just get me. It's grand and tragic, everything waits to open up and explode for it. Einar's voice is perfect for it, he genuinely makes it sound like pure heartbreak. And that build to the last chorus is just so good. I love the little blippy keyboards establishing the super syncopated rhythms. It's all topped off with Einar's super high note. And those strings?? Beautiful song.
Then, as if we haven't gotten enough bangers, we get the undeniable hit of the album. From The Flame. This is what I like to call a statement song. It was their first single off a streak of amazing prog metal albums, and it's so different from anything they did before. It's practically a pop song to any metalhead. It's like when Haken released The Good Doctor. It's saying "Yeah we're doing pop now, what are you gonna do about it?"
And I mean come on, it doesn't get much better than this. The verses are so cool with their odd time signatures, and the choruses are just, come on man. Someone said it best in the comment to their youtube video of this song. This is what pop SHOULD sound like.
We get some lesser, but still great songs after this incredible run.
Illuminate is another very catchy rhythmic song. I love how much more they use keyboard in this album. I also like that they know when something is so good to carry an entire song. The super fast and choppy rhythm is present all throughout the song. In the verses, the chorus. It's played with multiple instruments. I love how so many times they will build a song off of one single idea and somehow it works and never comes out as lazy or too repetitive.
Leashes and Mirage are... forgive me for being repetitive, but hey if the songs are gonna do the same thing what do you want me to do? It's another song where I think the verses are good, but the strength is all in the chorus. You can really tell they wanted to go in a much more grand and emotional direction. This is something they'd continue and perfect in future albums. It's practically the best part of their modern sound.
Sadly, I do think the album starts to fall off after this. The rest of the songs are not bad at all, but they just fell much less memorable in most aspects. There will be some cool riffs or melodies here and there. I liked how heavy and chaotic Coma was, definitely the most like The Congregation, and I do admire that The Last Milestone is the last song and it's a super long and pretty orchestral fade. It might not seem like it but it takes balls to end an album like that.
But they're only slightly cool moments in what I otherwise consider a pretty weak second half.
In the end, we are left an album that can sometimes have the best of both words, sometimes the worst of them. Pretty ironic, but I do think this was a necessary step to get us to the beautiful stage that they've been in ever since.
Ranking
From The Flame
Stuck
Bonneville
Illuminate
Leashes
Mirage
Captive
Coma
The Last Milestone
The Weight Of Disaster
Malina
Score
7/10
Leprous reviews