Einar Solberg who has kept the fires burning with Leprous for the last 15 years, delving into the universes of prog metal, art rock, pop, and electronica, shows no sign of stopping. After he unleashing his first solo album 16 three years ago, he moved away from the guitar-driven sounds into something unique, and something powerful to prove he was more than just a metal god.
Following it up with 16 is his venture into orchestral, metallic, and boldness on his part from the InsideOut label with Vox Occulta. The term “Vox Occulta” is a Latin phrase, translating to “Hidden Voice”. It means that implies the knowledge, sound, or the message that is evoked to have a sense of either a mystery or esoteric knowledge.
Listening to Solberg’s second album, you feel as if you are entering the room of an unknown world, revealing the power and having this cinematic movie inside your head, in what the Leprous front man has envisioned inside his head. Why do you think the black-and-white cover for this album says it? It has that Sin City vibe, but with a grittier, and film-noir setting in a Bio-Punk universe between the late 1940s, early 1950s.
And with Einar has a love of classical music he carries for a long time, he still carries as I’ve mentioned, the Metallic edge inside his blood and veins. And to be allowed to have Bent Knee’s violinist Chris Baum, Monuments John Browne, Bent Knee alumni guitarist Ben Levin, Agent Fresco drummer Keli Gudjonsson, Novelists guitarist Pierre Danel and bassist Jed Lingat, followed by David Castillo (Opeth, Amorphis, Katanonia) who co-produced the album and Biffy Clyro alumnus Adam Noble handling the mixing, it’s a combination that’ll you need to get your blood pumping.
The collaboration with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, can’t go wrong with that. It adds in the tension, the dramatic segments, action-packed sequences, horror elements, and galloping compositions that is like a loose cannon, ready to explode at any second.
From the fiery eruptions of a world gone wrong on ‘Liberatio’, Einar conducts the orchestra with his mighty hands to send in thunder, powering guitar riffs, rumbling drum work, and powering vocalisations that’ll get you headbanging in a nanosecond. The electro turned futuristic brutal force behind ‘Medulla’ exercises with the slithering riffs, haunting cat-and-mouse chase, and connects by drifting into this twilight state the hero goes through.
Opening track ‘Stella Mortua’ is almost a spaghetti western score which has its pure Italian textures with nods to Radiohead’s arrangements which speaks volume. This isn’t just a metal composition, but Einar delving deeper into this alternate world of narrating the world of Gotham City in its dystopian structure as it becomes a ticking time bomb. There’s also drama, action, and heroic militant themes coming out of nowhere as Einar pours his heart into this song.
If you think he’s going to slip in this romantic ballad, think again, Einar goes in for the kill on here, singing through the mind of the Dark Knight who’s working hard to make sure the city doesn’t have another crime wave, another corruption, and another enemy from Arkham Asylum that will get his blood boiling, at any second. And paving the wave for the Gotham Knights to carry on his legacy after he leaves this world.
Speaking of DC Comics, both ‘Vita Fragilis’ and the title-track feels like they could have been used in an episode for Batman: The Animated Series where Einar visions our hero soaring through the art deco world of Gotham in its pure animated segments, Danny Elfman-like qualities, galloping riffs, and clever string sections with a metallic guitar doom to set up the climax for its next episode in the following week.
As it continues to march forward, Vox Occulta begins to take a leap forward into the mournful church organ-like sound on the 11-minute epic ‘Grez’ where Einar puts the progressive genre into fold, blending to the Gilmour-sque guitar textures, mournful strings the orchestra sets up for Einar’s operatic harmony, the road to excess, and the loneliness to view a man’s grip on the brink of collapse.
Einar has put his heart and soul into 2026 with his second album, and he has shown to himself what kind of missions he has accomplished to bring the Vox’s heart into the light at the end of the tunnel, knowing that there’s hope, and there’s a new beginning for someone who has went through so much and start a new chapter in their lives.
