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

With a first record like Tall Poppy Syndrome, Leprous could not remain unknown for very long. One of the signs of recognition is this signature on the prestigious Inside Out label which aroused the fans' appetite as soon as the release of Bilateral was announced 18 months after the Norwegians' first shock. With such rich and creative music, the Scandinavians immediately settled into a position less and less shared by progressive metal bands, with the result that they had to innovate to survive.

The first track, "Bilateral", takes over from Tall Poppy Syndrome in the very place where it had been left a year and a half earlier. Raw power, well-controlled choirs, strange sounds and a bewitching rhythm section. Without really creating a similar shock when listening to the first track of Tall Poppy Syndrome, we enter Bilateral with high expectations. And it's not the nugget that follows that will make us waver. Indeed, "Forced Entry" is nothing less than the best track on the album and certainly from the Norwegians' young career. Everything is there: the characteristic length of epic compositions without excessive complexity, an extremely melodious two-step chorus, rhythmic breaks and well-balanced instrumental passages. We find in this title a little less madness than usual but some sounds are to be found on the side of Haken or Tool and bring a real plus to the music so personal of the "lepers".

If these two songs have for them to be appreciated very quickly, the rest of the album gives more trouble. It will take a lot of listening not to judge too quickly the other eight tracks, like "Mb. Indifferentia" which starts slowly like a ballad to progress towards something more powerful. The temptation to cry out for simplicity is great but less obvious once the listening follows one another. We would still prefer the emotion conveyed during the brilliant "Acquired Taste" which demonstrates the importance of Einar Solberg's polymorphous singing.

In the middle of titles that have real qualities, a dissonant, strident and disturbing "Waste Of Air" emerges, hypnotizing by its loud rhythms and loud keyboards. There is no real coherence in this title, which remains atypical of this Bilateral. Leprous seems to be marking the step in a frantic race towards ever more originality, and the recommended solution is to act with small touches like this saxophone well felt on the excellent "Thorn" (which follows a few well-tortured sentences from Ihsahn) or the arabic riffs from "Cryptogenic Desires".

Condemned to innovate because it is the essence of this niche at the edge of the avant-garde, Leprous is also and above all progressive metal without supersonic guitars, with a voice capable of sweeping an extremely wide musical spectrum. To be able to give himself a margin of progress, Leprous acts sparingly and picks up less thundering madness in his pieces, and this is probably what troubles the first listeners the most. Without denying his first loves, Bilateral offers a less ambitious and more consensual music, more likely to reach a wide audience. - Official website

LEPROUS

BILATERAL

INSIDEOUT MUSIC

PROGRESSIVE METAL