By John Sturm
Sometimes a band comes along that not only challenges the way you think about a certain style of music but also challenges the way you think must should be made and on their newest release Coal, Leprous is that band.
Everyone’s favourite pub quiz trivia machine, Wikipedia, hilariously describes the town Leprous are from (Notodden, Norway) as a “metal town” based simply on the fact that it is also where Emperor is from (more on that later). And although Emperor guitarist Isahn hails from the same town, that’s where the similarities end really.
The album begins with ‘Foe’; all stabbing drums and guitars and a soaring vocal line and ends with a collage of vocal harmonies and melodies weaving in and out like the chorus line of an opera. In 5 minutes, Leprous have played a piece of truly progressive music. Something that challenges you and makes you think, almost like you’re having to play catch-up with the band and the directions they are taking you in. Wondrous stuff.
55 minutes later and we end with ‘Contaminate Me’ that features an ending that disturbs me more than the ending to Korn’s ‘Daddy’. There is something…. Unsettling about the combination of throat wrenching screams, drums, guitar drones and a wistful violin melody all mashed together. It’s the perfect end to an album that I cannot do justice with by giving you a track-by-track review. Sorry.
There is a stigmata that goes with the word “progressive” that (for the uninitiated) lead to conclusions that the songs will feature lyrics about wizards and/or creatures that don’t exist, that as flute solo (played whilst standing on one leg) will appear, that all songs are 34 minutes long and are broken down into parts. Bloody hell, even the much vaunted Oxford Dictionary defines it as “relating to or denoting a style of rock music popular especially in the 1970s and characterized by classical influences, the use of keyboard instruments, and lengthy compositions”.
Utter nonsense.
What Leprous have done here on Coal is truly progressive in its truest definition; that is, to move forward, to evolve and to continue exploration. Each track has so many elements, so many twists and turns that it’s breathtaking in scope and imagination. Voices weave in and out, guitars are crunchingly heavy one minute then delicately fragile the next. I can’t begin to imagine how these little beauties are created. And to be honest with you, I don’t care. The finished product of whatever journey was taken to get there, is utterly spellbinding and glorious.
Coal is released on 20th May 2013 from Inside Out Music (here). If you do one thing this year, buy this album.
