{"id":32021,"date":"2013-09-23T08:14:32","date_gmt":"2013-09-23T13:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=32021"},"modified":"2014-02-08T08:37:52","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T13:37:52","slug":"leprous-coal-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2013\/leprous-coal-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Leprous | Coal<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist\/News Editor —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Leprous\"After delivering one of the absolute best progressive metal albums of the decade with 2011\u2019s Bilateral<\/em>, it\u2019s safe to say that expectations were very high for Leprous\u2019s follow-up effort. The Norwegian band, who also double as former Emperor frontman Ihsahn\u2019s backing band, have, with each of their previous studio albums, taken the term \u201cprogressive\u201d to heart, challenging both the genre and its fans. With their latest masterpiece, titled Coal<\/em>, they continue that progression.<\/p>\n

One of the (many) things that stood out about Bilateral<\/em> is that for all its technicality it was surprisingly accessible from the very first listen. That\u2019s not the case with Coal<\/em>. It has a fair share of melodic elements, but this isn\u2019t an album that grabs you right away. You have to work a little to really get Coal<\/em>, and that\u2019s OK, because it\u2019s an album that is more than worth the effort. This is an ideal \u201cheadphones album,\u201d where you need to filter out external noise and experience just how nuanced and powerful this music is.<\/p>\n

Coal<\/em> still has that core Leprous sound that seems to be part post-black metal Norwegian prog (think Winds, Age of Silence) and part King Crimson gone Pain of Salvation. It\u2019s very much a metal album, but with a high degree of technicality and a rich atmospheric side. As with Bilateral<\/em>, the harsh vocals are dialed back in favor of more clean singing.<\/p>\n

There are only eight songs on Coal<\/em> (nine if you count the bonus track \u201cBury\u201d), and they\u2019re all brilliant, so it\u2019s almost pointless to call out highlights, but there are a couple of tracks that deserve special mention. The nearly 10-minute \u201cEcho\u201d does an amazing job pulling together all of the album\u2019s disparate elements into one song, and the intense and emotional \u201cChronic\u201d would have been right at home on Pain of Salvation\u2019s Remedy Lane. It\u2019s album closer \u201cContaminate Me\u201d that is Coal\u2019s real standout track. Besides having a tremendous energy and intensity, it also features guest vocals from Ihsahn.<\/p>\n

While perhaps not the complete triumph Bilateral was, Coal<\/em> is still far and away the best progressive metal album released this year. At this point, and after three consecutive albums of this caliber, Leprous really should be spoken of in the same league as Dream Theater and Opeth. They\u2019ve certainly raised the bar for the rest of the progressive metal genre. If you\u2019re a fan of progressive music, you owe it to yourself to experience this band. You will neither forget nor regret it.<\/p>\n

Genre: Progressive Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nEinar Solberg (v) (k)
\nTor Oddmund Suhrke (g) (v)
\nOystein Landsverk (g) (v)
\nTobias Ornes Andersen (d)
\nRein T. Blomquist (b)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tFoe
\n2.\tChronic
\n3.\tCoal
\n4.\tThe Cloak
\n5.\tThe Valley
\n6.\tSalt
\n7.\tEcho
\n8.\tContaminate Me
\n9.\tBury<\/p>\n

Label: InsideOut Records<\/p>\n

Website: www.leprous.net<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 9\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist\/News Editor — After delivering one of the absolute best progressive metal albums of the decade with 2011\u2019s Bilateral, it\u2019s safe to say that expectations were very high for Leprous\u2019s […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":32022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8704],"tags":[2317,101,1098],"class_list":{"0":"post-32021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2013","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-leprous","10":"tag-progressive-metal"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}