First Impressions
All right, everyone who said Leprous is trash nowadays. I understand them to a very light degree now. Because it is absolutely ridiculous how amazing the run of albums from Bilateral to this album is. This is yet another completely different, yet somehow equally as consistent album in which they've decided to chose a very specific sonic soundscape and completely run with it for the entirety of the record.
This time. The sound of the album is a rhythmic nightmare. Every song sounds super dry, almost robotic with super stiff and confusing patterns. Everything is syncopated to hell and back. The riffs are choppy, the bass super dry and pulsing. The electronic elements are mere textures, more akin to how they'd use them going forward. And the drums...
This is the first album they did with Baard. And while I have said that Tobias was really underrated, yeah Baard is a complete and utter machine in this album. There are times where I just sat there thinking there is no way this isn't sped up. His works with cymbals and toms is immaculate, and his timing is some of the tightest I have ever heard. It really amplifies how cold and dry the album feels. Everything is perfectly on beat like a drum machine.
This also gives us Einar at his most emotional and brutal I've heard him. Not only is his voice a little more refined than the previous albums, but his screams have reached their absolute peak here. He sound properly pissed and threatening when he does them.
Now. You might think the words I'm using to describe the album are not too flattering. Dry, robotic, stiff. Normally, they would be. But as I've learned by this point, Leprous are absolute masters at taking an idea and turning it on it's head. Yes, this album sounds very cold, but that makes it so the moments of warmth feel so much more rewarding. I'm thinking of the ending of Rewind, the ending of The Flood, the chorus of Triumphant, pretty much ALL of Down.
This is the ultimate slow burn album they did while they were still 100% a prog metal band.
But here's the thing. Where normally you're waiting for those climaxes and that's what makes the songs wroth it. That's not really the case here. We get the best of both worlds here, there are incredible climactic moments, but the moments in between go so hard that you don't even realize you're waiting for the drop. The riffs are so good, contrasting with the drums that are going at 100% at every moment, it's such a sick combo that you can either headbang to or close your eyes and meditate to it. And both work.
Let's do the individual song highlights a little differently than before, since all of these songs really have the same core sound.
The first third of the album is a microcosm of the entire premise. You get the more accessible songs at the start, The Price and Third Law. Both of these have the same structure, an super dizzying but awesome main riff, and a catchy chorus with some downtime in between.
In The Price, the riff is 100% the best part. It's so catchy and bouncy. The choppiness somehow just increases it's oomph factor by a thousand. And in Third Law, the chorus is what really drew me. It feels so grand and epic in a very gothic and ominous nature. The dry sound of the album makes it so that when you get moments with harmonies and chants it feels so threatening. Again they are so smart with how they play with dynamics and tension.
Then you get a taste of the epic side of the album. Rewind and The Flood are both huge journeys. Rewind is much more subtle, and it CAN feel repetitive on first listen, but here's my counter argument. If what you're playing is amazing, you can play it for like 4 minutes and no one will notice. The drums are what make the song. Baard goes so hard and fast when everything else is so mellow and it's hilarious how amazingly it works.
And, god. The Flood is a top 10 Leprous song, at the very least. It's by far the most traditional epic here, and ironically, it feels like a splash of cold water. It feels so open and warm. The chorus is one of the most dramatic and grand things I've heard them do. This, combined with the choppy nature of the album just elevates so much. There's this constant wub of a super low bass all throughout the song. I mean ALL throughout the song it never goes away. Except when they start rocking out at the very end. It goes unreasonably hard.
The middle portion of the album is much more subdued and experimental.
Triumphant and Within My Fence, once again feel very similar in how they are built around once central hook. The chorus of Triumphant is so good, because the rhythm doesn't really change from the verse. It doesn't feel like a chorus type of melody. But the contrast of it with Einar's soaring vocals somehow makes it work. And Within My Fence has one of the most fun and jammy main riffs of the record.
Red was a grower. I didn't enjoy it too much at first. But the more I listened to it, the more I realized how good that chorus is. When you get the build with the crazy keyboard lead, and then the guitar follows it?? Oh yeah, it bangs.
Now, for the final third, it's pretty much all epics.
Slave is very much like The Flood. Where all the energy is put into the chorus. Einar is really the highlight here. His voice is just too damn beautiful. Why do we let pop singers be in metal bands? Who thought it was a good idea and how much money can I give them?
Moon was another grower. I would equate it to Painful Detour in Bilateral. The verses are really chilled out, almost feels like they're not going anywhere. But they lead to a super triumphant chorus, as triumphant as it is melancholic. I really like sections where the song kind of chills out the most. The second verse with some really low guitars used in a context I don't really hear lower gauge guitars being used in, ever. And after the second chorus when it drops to just drums and bass. Oh yeah, super tasty.
But this is Leprous babyyy. We HAVE to save the best song for the end. How they've managed to consistently identify their best song and put it at or near the end almost every time is kind of crazy.
Down is incredible. I cannot think of a better way to have a climax for this album than this song.
It's got everything. An extremely catchy, bouncy and choppy main riff. A super chill verse where the drums are just not getting the memo and going as hard as they can, and a super dramatic and epic chorus.
The think is, it's really not much different from the rest of the album, I just think it's very clearly the one that does what the album sets out to do best. It puts you in a super dry and dark place, where you feel like you're being attacked every time the guitars play off rhythm. But there's also a very strange beauty to it. And the way everything drops in the middle, and then an ORGAN comes to double the riff? Best moment of the the album. It's so good.
The song is so good in fact, that I firmly believe the album should've had ended there. Because Lower, while still good, feels a little unnecessary.
I get what they were going for, and again it's still good. But it's just the same formula the epic songs have had without doing anything different or better than the other songs. I don't think it ruins the album or the pacing, it's only one song and one of the shortest ones at that. But if they had ended after Down, it would've been perfect.
This album is the longest one they've made. Honestly, it's well deserved. It's such an interesting experiment that goes so well I wish they'd done more in it's style. It sounds so aggressive and angry under it's mechanical coldness. It can sound almost primal at times.
Once again, they knocked it out of the park with this one.
Ranking
Down
The Flood
Rewind
The Price
Triumphant
Within My Fence
Moon
Third Law
Red
Slave
Lower
Score
9/10
Leprous Reviews