Leprous – “Tall Poppy Syndrome” released April 28, 2009 on Sensory Records Norwegian quintet’s brilliant debut album of experimental progressive metal. They’ve got a lot of momentum behind them. Vocalist/synthist Einar Solberg was hired for Emperor’s 2006-07 reunion shows, and the whole group recently performed as Ihsahn’s live band––a daunting task indeed. Stylistically similar to Opeth, their explorations are mostly successful, delving into lounge swing (2), funk (3), spoken word (7), and even a Beethoven-cum-black metal recurring riff on “Not Even A Name” which relents to jazzy jaunts and mellow moments. They never let their inventiveness get ahead of [...read more]