Leprous – Bilateral

We are Leprous, a Progressive metal band from Norway but not in a short scale confined term. You will all listen to us from now on!!!
In this short sentence, I tried to describe what this band had in mind when they were recording this masterpiece.

“Bilateral” is Leprous’ second official full-length release. Here you will all listen a strong twist of music, intelligence and uniqueness. After their first full length “Tall Poppy Syndrome” a couple of years ago, where Leprous seemed just another Prog metal band, with a good potential to become one of the strong forwarders of what all open minded progsters call prog music. “Bilateral” just seems to have them placed in a rocket fired up to reach tops, and much more than just admiration.

Having flirted, on the previous album with more stable forms of song structures, and some few glimpses on to the unusual, now Leprous stood their ground and managed to overcome their inner fears of expression and here we are.

In a more relaxed and boundary free enviroment “Bilateral” sounds more pricise in what Leprous consider about their own music. The brutal Death metal parts have given space to other music elements previously unexplored by the band themselves. Brutal vocals have almost
disappeared but in a weird way their clean vocals have been so well designed to stuck in the mind with the first listen, so that none of the missing “brutality” seems noticable or strange. Jazzy elements and incredibly beautiful flow of all the songs just seem to have taken their place for good to their sound. The drumming and bass spine of their well beatifully flowing music seems as a big fat ancient oak simply stable and strong with vast roots!!!

Ihsahn’s involvement on the production, as anyone would have expected, is absolutely exceptional…As for the mix by Jens Bogren you have another big reason to please even more your ears…

Maybe it’s Ihsahn’s experience that has been filtered without any drop missed….Maybe it’s their own “growth” as musicians…We will never find out…But one thing is for sure that “Bilateral” is on hell of an album, that uses 8-stringed guitars like no other band does in our days…An album with so wide spectrum of music influences that are so well placed. An album so melodic, rhythmic, intense, thatrical and full of “coloured” and “spicy-flavoured” music that I guess deserves to be heard as one of the most interesting and transcedental albums of their own carrier and the genre they are serving thus being Pure Intelligent Progressive ART!!!