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Zephirus
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2005 1:37 pm
Posts: 575
Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Sun Aug 01, 2021 3:19 pm 
 

loved the congregation. bought mailina on the strength of it but was disappointed. haven;t heard pitfalls, and this sounds a bit weak for me.

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Jebator
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Dec 28, 2008 8:11 am
Posts: 198
Location: Croatia
PostPosted: Sun Aug 01, 2021 3:20 pm 
 

My 2 cents on the subject.

I didn't pay attention to the band until they played a concert with Devin Townsend in my home town right after "The Congregation" was released. I checked some of the songs off setlist.fm but went more interested in Devin. But GODDAMN Leprous blew my socks off. The intensity, the musicianship, the songs. Right away I bought all of the music they had with them and became an instant fan.

I dived like an addict onto their backcatalog and looked forward to their upcoming releases. The change introduced on "Malina" is very noticeable. It doesn't work on all songs, but damn, most of the songs are masterclass of songwriting. And THAT is what sets this band apart. The songwriting. Unpredictable. The build-ups. If anyone is looking to hear easy-accessible songs with immediate effect, you will not find it in Leprous. The songs have to breathe, you have to let them sink, you have to pay attention. Also, this is all but easy-listening. Anyone claiming that they are "selling out" to get to wider audience, must be mad.

At first, I didn't like "Pitfals". It was a step further, art-pop is in full force here. But now, when I reconciled with myself there is less (guitar) intensity on that one, the songs shone right through. I love the album now.

The albums I would recommend are "The Congregation", "Malina", "Pitfals" in that order. If anyone is looking for metal and straight-forwardness here, go somewhere else. If you are looking for adventurous songwriting, actual evolvement and risk-taking, look no further.

Not to sound like a raving fan, I do miss more complex guitarwork and guitars to be more on the front. It looks like the new album could bring some electric intensity back. Lets wait and see.

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Metal_On_The_Ascendant
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Joined: Fri May 22, 2015 6:38 am
Posts: 2973
PostPosted: Sun Aug 01, 2021 3:55 pm 
 

Yeah what I have enjoyed about Leprous too has been their keen grasp of songwriting. And also watching them progress their craft through the different albums.

They only become divisive because people try to put them into scenes and sections. They usually sound nothing like whatever bands they're stacked against...and then the weird disillusionment begins. Like expecting Einar to froth at the mouth with decadent growls because they're named Leprous :lol:
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NecroRAM
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2012 12:17 pm
Posts: 12
Location: Armenia
PostPosted: Sun Aug 01, 2021 6:15 pm 
 

Gravetemplar wrote:
We really don't need (or want) your misogynistic posts here. Get lost.


I had to re-read my post to even get what the fuck you were hinting at.

Theres no misogyny, its literally what theyve personally told me and what ive heard in conversations. Not saying they didnt like the music but im not seeing them praising John Gallagher for his looks or music either, so its definitely part of the appeal.

Im more aggravated with the whole wave of hype and false promise people had built up around this band and how it delivered nothing to me in retrospect rather than the band itself. The fans are always the problem.

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NecroRAM
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2012 12:17 pm
Posts: 12
Location: Armenia
PostPosted: Sun Aug 01, 2021 6:28 pm 
 

Death By Wall of Text wrote:
Oh dude, you sound exactly like the type of Sunday tough guy bro scene I got away from without looking back.

I won't even get into the rest, but you have absolutely no clue how bullshit that "fake emotion" statement is.


Im literally the last person youd call a tough guy if you saw me. But i do have the standard that my music should be pretty straightforward.
Any good music is, in the sense that even if its a complex band that still has something to say musically and it connects, it becomes straightforward by this very virtue.
With Leprous theres almost nothing to make that connection possible for me. And while musically they might have their interesting moments, the vocals are an absolute deal-breaker.
It all sounds so sugarcoated, and i dont mean it had to be heavy. Incubus - Make Yourself and Science are great examples of both fairly good singing and musical experimentation. Leprous is not. That guy is trying to evoke certain established emotions with all the wrong tools that are at a 180 angle of how i think it should be done. And it is absolutely baffling to me how they got so much traction with the metal crowd even if we ignore the Emperor connection.

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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:58 pm
Posts: 35179
Location: Where the dead rule the night
PostPosted: Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:14 pm 
 

Never heard anything by them before. Trying "Running Low" and this is a cool song. Sounds much more in the vein of post-00s experimental rock and pop and I'm fine with it; maybe pretty long but I do like the direction anyway. I'll have to try more sometime. The singer is actually really good. I think it's probably a bit baggy and unfocused and maybe would be better as an even more straight up soft rock kind of tune. But they do seem ambitious so maybe that is not really what they're doing here.
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~Guest 1195014
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2021 9:18 pm
Posts: 227
PostPosted: Sun Aug 01, 2021 8:53 pm 
 

Jebator wrote:
My 2 cents on the subject.

I didn't pay attention to the band until they played a concert with Devin Townsend in my home town right after "The Congregation" was released. I checked some of the songs off setlist.fm but went more interested in Devin. But GODDAMN Leprous blew my socks off. The intensity, the musicianship, the songs. Right away I bought all of the music they had with them and became an instant fan.

I dived like an addict onto their backcatalog and looked forward to their upcoming releases. The change introduced on "Malina" is very noticeable. It doesn't work on all songs, but damn, most of the songs are masterclass of songwriting. And THAT is what sets this band apart. The songwriting. Unpredictable. The build-ups. If anyone is looking to hear easy-accessible songs with immediate effect, you will not find it in Leprous. The songs have to breathe, you have to let them sink, you have to pay attention. Also, this is all but easy-listening. Anyone claiming that they are "selling out" to get to wider audience, must be mad.

At first, I didn't like "Pitfals". It was a step further, art-pop is in full force here. But now, when I reconciled with myself there is less (guitar) intensity on that one, the songs shone right through. I love the album now.

The albums I would recommend are "The Congregation", "Malina", "Pitfals" in that order. If anyone is looking for metal and straight-forwardness here, go somewhere else. If you are looking for adventurous songwriting, actual evolvement and risk-taking, look no further.

Not to sound like a raving fan, I do miss more complex guitarwork and guitars to be more on the front. It looks like the new album could bring some electric intensity back. Lets wait and see.

That's a very good summary of what sets them apart, but this is also why Coal is my favourite album. It relies heavily on ideas that on paper just SHOULD NOT WORK, like "Foe" and "Chronic" having an outro that seems to (respectively) either take forever to fade out or build-up, or "The Valley" having an atmospheric middle section that lasts four times longer than any sane band would ever do, or "Echo" doing basically all of the above, and then all of that, an album that's mostly introspective melancholy and restrained prog metal/rock riffing, ends with fucking "Contaminate Me" which is one of the most savage, unhinged tracks I've ever heard in my life, which on paper sounds like "Raining Blood" slapped onto a U2 album. And it all somehow just brilliantly works when you get into it, and the album has a lot of great catchy choruses and riffs to get you hooked until it all sinks in. It's bizarre how they've made this kind of thing feel normal and flow naturally, when looking back that album just should. not. work.

Pincushion wrote:
Death By Wall of Text wrote:
Coal - my personal favourite.

I didn't realize it until I put together my best of 2010s, but Coal is my favorite Leprous and my overall favorite album of that decade. I didn't care for their last two albums, though, and judging by these singles, I won't like the new one. I do commend them for continuing to progress, but I think they're putting too much emphasis on vocals now.

Also, since I haven't had a chance to bring this up previously... does anybody else think the song "Alleviate" sounds like it could be a Disney song? The music video has him singing in front of the ocean like Moana which doesn't help. :lol:

Yay! Well, I fell in love with it when I first got it, and it remains my favourite though "Pitfalls" was a solid challenger. As for emphasis on vocals, it might feel that way since the songs are now mostly a bit more concise, but the instrumentation is as complex as ever. Even their "simple rock songs" have chord progressions and basslines that my mind would probably fail miserably at remembering from what I've seen.

And... there is something to it, though I always thought more Eurovision. :lol: It's definitely somewhere in that ballpark, and it really is a good song for what it is, but I wouldn't want a full album of it. (But judging by the new singles, I don't need to worry.)

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Metal_On_The_Ascendant
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Joined: Fri May 22, 2015 6:38 am
Posts: 2973
PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2021 8:45 am 
 

NecroRAM wrote:
Gravetemplar wrote:
We really don't need (or want) your misogynistic posts here. Get lost.


I had to re-read my post to even get what the fuck you were hinting at.

Theres no misogyny, its literally what theyve personally told me and what ive heard in conversations. Not saying they didnt like the music but im not seeing them praising John Gallagher for his looks or music either, so its definitely part of the appeal.

Im more aggravated with the whole wave of hype and false promise people had built up around this band and how it delivered nothing to me in retrospect rather than the band itself. The fans are always the problem.


Your first post went on about how Leprous make, and I quote, "bullshit singalong music embellished with prog shithousery that their target audience doesnt care about anyway since its mostly girls who dont even like extreme metal". I mean, you could say you weren't saying that to be deliberately misogynistic but the implication there is that it's "mostly girls" who care about "bullshit singalong music" and that guys (or mostly guyss) are better equipped to handle whatever you assume is well made music. Or some shit like that.

Just in case you accuse me of reading into that too much, you provided the context for my take on it in your next post by saying; "it is obvious this band is for fans of inoffensive light metal or whatever trend there is in the scene at the moment".

You've complained about the frontman's whiny persona blah blah blah and how "girls got wet" about his looks.

These are classic but tired misogynistic appraisals, you fucking tool.

Your general takes on everything make me want to do to you in the face what you wanted to do to Einar, as per your second post.
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NecroRAM
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2012 12:17 pm
Posts: 12
Location: Armenia
PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2021 5:25 pm 
 

Metal_On_The_Ascendant wrote:
Your first post went on about how Leprous make, and I quote, "bullshit singalong music embellished with prog shithousery that their target audience doesnt care about anyway since its mostly girls who dont even like extreme metal". I mean, you could say you weren't saying that to be deliberately misogynistic but the implication there is that it's "mostly girls" who care about "bullshit singalong music" and that guys (or mostly guyss) are better equipped to handle whatever you assume is well made music. Or some shit like that.

Just in case you accuse me of reading into that too much, you provided the context for my take on it in your next post by saying; "it is obvious this band is for fans of inoffensive light metal or whatever trend there is in the scene at the moment".

You've complained about the frontman's whiny persona blah blah blah and how "girls got wet" about his looks.

These are classic but tired misogynistic appraisals, you fucking tool.

Your general takes on everything make me want to do to you in the face what you wanted to do to Einar, as per your second post.


Yes. I didnt like those particular traits of those particular girls. Ive told them openly about that since we're close enough to discuss that. Everybody knows me as the music troll so it was only expected. This does not translate to no girls being able to like well-made music nor does affirm that only guys can. Their gender is important only by the virtue of Einar being an attractive male. Now i dont know of any guys that liked him too, maybe there were but i wouldnt know.
I also included a list of other people that liked Leprous which you chose to ignore. Dont worry plenty of guys liked them too, all the worse for them.

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Bloodstone
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Mar 11, 2004 11:48 am
Posts: 560
Location: Germany
PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2021 6:09 pm 
 

Looks to be another good one. I was at their DVD recording gig in Oslo five years ago, world class show in every way and I really became a fan since (I went because my girlfriend at the time was already a huge fan). "Rewind" was just absolutely electric, felt like time stopped when they played it. The Congregation is probably my favorite album yet, although it was also my first which does play a part. I miss the heavy guitars of old, but the music does stand on its own without them and they're never been concerned with scoring metal cred even before they started downplaying their guitars starting with Melina.

While on the subject of male/female fans, although I disagree with NecroRAM's take, I will say that Leprous strike me as one of the better looking and dressed metal bands around which always does matter to some extent when it comes to attracting fans. No idea about the male/female fanbase split at this point, but given they do play prog metal, my guess is they still have some work cut out for them as far as making the split more even.
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Metal_On_The_Ascendant
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Joined: Fri May 22, 2015 6:38 am
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2021 6:50 pm 
 

^ There's a certain expectation potential fans get because they've been Ihsahn's back up band so the Emperor connection sets them up terribly. I got into them aware they were a prog band but they aren't even typically prog.

This sorta reminds me of how badly King's X were marketed back in the day. They were this eccentric trio with a huge Beatles influence but also Hendrix influenced with songs that adapted well to the grunge aesthetic - and yet they were called "progressive metal" and even opened for Dream Theater. Their cool eccentricities were lost on Atlantic Records and they just lumped them in the Prog category. King's X were never a prog band, not really - even though Gretchen Goes To Nebraska seemed to lean that way - but they got swept up in it. When they had a page on this site they were labelled that as well. I think they even had a record on InsideOut at some point.

Leprous is certainly prog but not in any expected definitive ways. This new album, with all the singles coming out so far is straying further and further away from metal too for something more soulful and unique to them. I can't hate on that.

Death By Wall of Text wrote:
"Contaminate Me" which is one of the most savage, unhinged tracks I've ever heard in my life, which on paper sounds like "Raining Blood" slapped onto a U2 album.


I'll be damned but that sounds like an apt description for that song lol. The way Einar tears his throat apart vocally as the song closes brings to my mind Pain of Salvation's "Mortar Grind" with its similarly crazy vocal at the ending. Daniel Gildenlow is within that zone of excessive-confessional performance too.
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LithoJazzoSphere
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Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2020 8:11 pm
Posts: 3576
Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2021 9:51 pm 
 

Metal_On_The_Ascendant wrote:
^ There's a certain expectation potential fans get because they've been Ihsahn's back up band so the Emperor connection sets them up terribly.


Wait, Leprous is the backing band for Ihsahn's solo material? I finally checked out some of that last year after putting it off for far too long, but didn't realize that. I'm gonna have to listen to additional albums with that in mind.

Metal_On_The_Ascendant wrote:
This sorta reminds me of how badly King's X were marketed back in the day. They were this eccentric trio with a huge Beatles influence but also Hendrix influenced with songs that adapted well to the grunge aesthetic - and yet they were called "progressive metal" and even opened for Dream Theater. Their cool eccentricities were lost on Atlantic Records and they just lumped them in the Prog category. King's X were never a prog band, not really - even though Gretchen Goes To Nebraska seemed to lean that way - but they got swept up in it. When they had a page on this site they were labelled that as well. I think they even had a record on InsideOut at some point.


Yeah, King's X has always been a fascinating example of "what could have been" practically as long as I've been into music and reading about it online. They had the Beatles + Black Sabbath vibe down so well. They should have blown up after their appearance at Woodstock in '94, but it just didn't happen. It's interesting how some bands have their toe in multiple different scenes, and for some it pays off, and others it doesn't. They're not as impressive on their instruments as Dream Theater, so they don't quite take that crowd. They're too skilled and have too many guitar solos to appeal to the minimalists. They're too heavy for pop fans. They're not heavy enough for metalheads. Basically they're Alice In Chains without the massive success. There's a parallel universe out there in some other dimension where King's X is the huge band and AIC is on the fringe of obscurity. That said, KX does at least have some modicum of success and recognition compared to numerous other bands who, despite all their talent, can't even attract enough fans to pack a broom closet gig. And they're certainly one of my favorite bands. Ear Candy is probably a top 20 all-time album for me, with several others not too far behind.


Last edited by LithoJazzoSphere on Tue Aug 03, 2021 2:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Metal_On_The_Ascendant
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 03, 2021 2:44 pm 
 

If you're listening with the Ihsahn connection in mind, Bilateral is a great place to start :)

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~Guest 1195014
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2021 9:18 pm
Posts: 227
PostPosted: Tue Aug 03, 2021 4:49 pm 
 

Metal_On_The_Ascendant wrote:
Death By Wall of Text wrote:
"Contaminate Me" which is one of the most savage, unhinged tracks I've ever heard in my life, which on paper sounds like "Raining Blood" slapped onto a U2 album.


I'll be damned but that sounds like an apt description for that song lol. The way Einar tears his throat apart vocally as the song closes brings to my mind Pain of Salvation's "Mortar Grind" with its similarly crazy vocal at the ending. Daniel Gildenlow is within that zone of excessive-confessional performance too.

Yeah, Daniel also had some great moments, but when it comes to his current musical "evolution"...

That's Ihsahn on "Contaminate Me", though! Einar sings the clean parts. He did the screams/growls alone on The Congregation, then dropped them entirely on Malina. Can't blame him either, unlike certain bands *cough* their progression away from extreme metal has been pretty natural and I basically can't picture growls on the last two records.

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Metal_On_The_Ascendant
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Joined: Fri May 22, 2015 6:38 am
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 21, 2021 11:34 am 
 

Yep, I've heard it. It's very cohesive. I wasn't disappointed in the least cause I wasn't expecting a \m/etal album. The instrumentation is very ornamented, way more than the last album. The production highlights the best qualities of all the string arrangements and brass sections that accompany the band here and there. It flows so good together with a bunch of songs nodding a bit to older 70's style prog/hard rock. The vocals are powerful and dynamic and cover quite the range. Guitar work is intricate and rich and the melodies soaring and flavorful.
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Pincushion
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 5:04 pm
Posts: 93
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Aug 29, 2021 11:03 am 
 

An excellent vocal performance on this album, possibly Einar's best. Similar to the last album, though, I find the music to be a bit lackluster, so I probably won't end up spinning this much overall. One thing that I could see changing my mind is if I was blown away in the live setting. I'll have to try to catch them the next time I get a chance.

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Bloodstone
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Mar 11, 2004 11:48 am
Posts: 560
Location: Germany
PostPosted: Sun Aug 29, 2021 1:49 pm 
 

Just listened to it once, it's probably my favorite since The Congregation. Or maybe this almost totally non-metal stuff they've played after that album just finally clicked with me more, hard to tell.
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yentass
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2003 9:28 am
Posts: 927
Location: Israel
PostPosted: Sun Aug 29, 2021 4:05 pm 
 

Listened to it for the first time today, first impressions trend toward the "uninspired", sadly. First impressions don't really count for much, though, so we'll see how it stands the test of repeat listens.
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