TALL POPPY SYNDROME

I consider this to be the best Leprous album as of now (10/2018). This album expands on what the band did on their first album, sounds fresh, innovative and although it does showcase a few influences such as Dream Theater, Opeth, classical music, acoustic music, this is all blended and stirred to create an original music piece of music. If Opeth revolutionized Extreme Metal by introducing death and acoustic elements, Agalloch black elements, Leprous contributed to their evolution of Extreme Metal 2.0 by extreme versatile operratic, hardcore, black and normal vocals, various metal elements and daring compositioms.

The album is digestable for many metal music circles but also consummable by most progressive rock fans. Perfect vocal harmonies, energetic song parts and more traditionally sounding keyboards will certainly appeal to many of us. Tempo changes and unusual song structures keep attention throughout the entire album but are not too frequent so one keeps trace of which track is actually played.

I don't have any standout tracks to recommend since all are very much recommended. Fans of black metal might like "Not even a name" while "Fate" might be enjoyed by listeners who want accessible, melodic and light music ;-) "Tall Poppy Syndrome" bears little similarity to Opeth around the "Watershed" album with its dark riffs.

This album was a breathrough for the album and well deserved so since Norway has a foot firmly rooted in experimental metal since the 90's.