With ‘Coal’ Norwegian progressive metal troupe Leprous have boldly decided to ramp up the prog factor of previous releases to maximum. Don’t be frightened however, this quintet are actually relatively tasteful, so you can put images of horrible Rick Wakeman keyboard solos to the back of your mind and dive in.
Unlike their part-time work as Ihsahn’s backing band, ‘Coal’ sees the members of Leprous continue to move the focus from crunching riffs to intricate symphonic arrangements and cascading vocal harmonies. Crucially, in doing this, they demonstrate magnificent awareness of where to draw the line. Only very rarely do things become overly twee or overly complex. The vast majority of ‘Coal’ stays very much in the world of contemporary crossover into retro progressive ideas without being sucked in by the temptation of adding an extra mellotron part or six to the equation.
Whilst this in itself may not seem to guarantee ‘Coal’ being a fine record, fortunately Leprous have really found their songwriting skin on this release as well. Tracks like opener ‘Foe’, ‘The Valley’ and ‘Echo’ are better than anything the band has produced to date. The guitar work is more precise and diverse, the keyboards spend most of their time enhancing rather than cluttering the sound and the rhythm section perfects the tricky art of being muscular and interesting rather than just one or the other. Vocalist Einar Solberg, meanwhile, is on fantastic form as well. Not only are his lyrics, mostly, very respectable, but his singing has matured and his vocal melodies are better integrated into the structuring of the songs.
All these improvements in combination have allowed Leprous to continue increasing in ambition whilst also offering something defiantly listenable. There’s a hefty chunk of Devin Townsend at his most radio friendly in lots of the tracks here which means that even when wandering close to the somewhat dated sounds of Camel and Genesis, the group retain enough contemporary edge to prevent the loss of their own distinctive personality.
Perhaps the only real problem with ‘Coal’ is its final track. ‘Contaminate Me’ is a brilliant piece, but it sees Leprous returning to the same territory as their work with Ihsahn, to the extent that they rope the Emperor legend in to provide harsh vocals. It sticks out on an album that has spent most of its time distancing itself from the heaviness that is a significant part of the band’s background, and ends up sounding a bit too out of place to work as closer, despite some fantastic moments. It would have been better of being saved for a heavier Leprous album further down the road.
Nevertheless, the slightly jarring inclusion of ‘Contaminate Me’ should not divert attention from the fact that Leprous have truly come into their own on ‘Coal’. This is an album with which they deserve to join the modern prog elite.
‘Coal’ is out on 20th May via InsideOut Music.
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Unlike their part-time work as Ihsahn’s backing band, ‘Coal’ sees the members of Leprous continue to move the focus from crunching riffs to intricate symphonic arrangements and cascading vocal harmonies. Crucially, in doing this, they demonstrate magnificent awareness of where to draw the line. Only very rarely do things become overly twee or overly complex. The vast majority of ‘Coal’ stays very much in the world of contemporary crossover into retro progressive ideas without being sucked in by the temptation of adding an extra mellotron part or six to the equation.
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