LEPROUS: The Congregation (PROGRESSIVE METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

After a cryptic "Coal" with dark and sticky atmospheres, Leprous seems to keep the same darkness if we judge by the cover of "The Congregation", far from the bright and floral colours that accompanied the Norwegians' iconography. Internally, the band's stability was disrupted with, for the first time, a change in the precious rhythm section of the combo. In the composition too, the cohesion is no longer the same because, this time, the birth of this monstrous musical creature is the result of a solipsistic approach by Einar Solberg, which was based on high computer technology.

"The Congregation" releases a dense content from which it is difficult to emerge the dose of crazy eccentricity that the band used to offer in their first albums by playing on styles and reliefs. The models present have more to do with those of "Coal", namely a perspective by contrasts, not always in fluidity, of a dull musical material and very melodic vocal parts. The construction of the pieces is supported by a rhythmic debauchery, in epileptic and syncopated modalities ('The Price' or'Third Law') that contrast relatively with the slow metrics of "Coal", and by an unbridled use of synthesizers leaving the guitars, often played in tremolo picking, the second roles.

"The Congregation" is impressive both in the rich harmonies and melodies and in the intentions of great accuracy, whether dramatic and plaintive ('Third Law'), possessed ('Rewind'), melancholic ('Moon' and'Slave') or angry ('Rewind' and the end of'Slave'). In his solitary approach, the singer focuses much of his creativity on his own performances and less on the unexpected progressive variety that was the attraction of Leprous' music. The songs tend globally towards song formats painfully stretched by predictable instrumental parts in the form of bridges that are often dynamic but built on the same standard, whose developments are rarely evolutionary.

It is mainly from keyboard textures and electronic effects that the composer draws his musical material, offering at the same time the ideal coating to highlight his vocalizations. The 7 and 8 string guitars and the almost undue sound effects amplify the unhealthy impression that surrounds some tracks like 'Red' and the top of the album 'The Flood' and blur the line between the inertia of the machine and the palpitation of the living. When we know, by Einar's own admission, that it was Massive Attack's trip hop that inspired him during his night writing sessions, we have a better understanding of the origin of the repetitive motifs around which many of the titles of "The Congregation" are articulated. On rare occasions, Einar escapes from this constraint to more symphonic arrangements ('Moon'), brighter breakthroughs ('Down' and'Within My Fence') or progressive ('Rewind').

The "Coal" experience was not just a simple curve in Leprous' path but a real turning point that shattered part of the legacy of their first three brilliant creative records. If Einar Solberg had the initial ambition to get straight to the point, the songs would have benefited from being lightened up by certain passages that offer nothing original, and worse, marking the impression of boredom that emerges on too many occasions. It would be in the band's interest, whatever the future direction, to reconnect with the diversity in which it excelled, and probably to rediscover collegial writing. - Official website

LEPROUS

THE CONGREGATION

INSIDEOUT MUSIC

PROGRESSIVE METAL