Hello everyone and welcome to our second ever discography ranking, this time of everyone’s favourite sound-shifting Norwegians: Leprous! The Scandinavian quintet have consistently evolved over the years from their avant-garde beginnings to the groove-laden operatic metal of their middle era, and into poppier and more symphonic territory on more recent releases. With the powerhouse vocals of Einar Solberg front-and-centre, and a love of unusual rhythmic styles paired with soulful melodies, Leprous are a unique act in the scene who have justly garnered a strong following. 

We had twenty-one of our writers listen through all eight Leprous albums and individually rank and score them. We then aggregated those rankings (and used the score average for any tiebreak situations which, as you’ll see, did arise) into the list that follows. Unfortunately, there’ll always be an album in last place, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that album is bad or that this ranking is at all definitive. It’s an aggregated average of twenty-one people, so maybe it says something about the general output of the band, but as any scientist will tell you, a sample of twenty-one doesn’t tell you all that much¹. 

So go ahead and peruse our ranking, let us know your own, and come on a journey with us to celebrate the music of a titanic modern prog act!

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8. Melodies of Atonement (2024) – 47 points

Continuing in the vein of the poppier, softer-edged—dare we say accessible—approach of predecessor Aphelion and the post-The Congregation ilk, Melodies of Atonement comes across as a solidification of the band’s modern identity. Thick, djent-adjacent guitar chugs lend an obsidian heft to darkly cinematic compositions like “Silently Walking Alone”, “Like a Sunken Ship”, and “Faceless”. Einar Solberg’s voice is, as ever, a potent force of melodious grandiosity, slotting seamlessly amidst his bandmates’ instrumentation—even dipping into some brief harshes. However, for fans displeased with Leprous’ continuing slide into moody pop-prog, Melodies of Atonement does little in the way of assuaging those dispositions. Still, this is Leprous, a top-notch act who, even when batting low against our aggregates, are still more than capable of knocking bangers out of the park. Whether future releases will see the band return to their rhythmically-complex sounds of old, or continue further down this road, one thing is certain: we can expect a polished, well-produced record that delights even as it divides.

Write-up by: Vince & Claire

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7. Tall Poppy Syndrome (2009) – 68 points

In a way, I consider Tall Poppy Syndrome to be the perfect debut album: ambitious, messy, and overflowing with raw talent. What makes the album even more fascinating is how little it resembles the band’s later work. Instead of the mood-and rhythm-driven approach they became known for, the album throws together avant-garde jazz, black metal, power-prog, psychedelia, and even musical theater with reckless abandon. Tall Poppy Syndrome shows a band trying on a bunch of different musical identities at once, held together by sheer musicianship. I mean, who cares that the vocal melodies are often a tad awkward (“Dare You”) and oversung (“Phantom Pain”) when you’ve got vocal god Solberg delivering them? And really, who gives a damn that the songwriting can be meandering or incoherent at times (“Dare You”, “White”) when the instrumental performances are this good? Perhaps the most remarkable part is that Leprous could have easily continued to hone and develop this extravagant, jazz and avant-garde infused take on prog metal and rise to the top of the scene. Instead, after refining the sound on Bilateral and Coal they had the balls to scrap the whole blueprint and became something far more distinctive and directly influenced a whole generation of prog bands to follow their lead.

Write-up by: Sam

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6. Aphelion (2021) – 80 points

Leprous’ shift to prog pop from progressive metal had happened years prior at the time of Aphelion’s release, but this is the album where the growing pains seemed to happen. Aphelion lacks a cohesive identity, further leaning into electronic-tinged pop (“Have You Ever?,” “The Shadow Side,” “Castaway Angels”) but with several forays into progressive metal (“Silhouette,” “All the Moments,” “Nighttime Disguise”). The pop tracks often climax with djent (“Out of Here,” “On Hold”), though, and the proggier tracks feature slower bits with cinematic cello that are in tension with the electronic themes (“All the Moments,” “Running Low”). While I think fans of every Leprous era will find at least a few tracks they love on Aphelion, the tracklist jumps from style to style so much that Aphelion can be disorienting, and pickier Leprous fans will struggle to engage with every song. Aphelion has plenty of strengths, though: the production is vivid, deftly balancing layered compositions and emphasizing Solberg’s vocals; the performances and professionalism, particularly Solberg’s, are fantastic, with some of his most impressive belting and falsetto to date; and there are several flat out bangers, from the driving “Silhouette” and sublime “All the Moments” to the super proggy “Nighttime Disguise.” Aphelion’s diversity is divisive but also one of its greatest strengths.

Write-up by: Andy

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5. Pitfalls (2019) – 86 points

In the annals of Leprous’ history, Pitfalls was a somewhat contentious entry into their discography. Exchanging their heft and rhythmic technicality for symphonic instruments, electronic percussion, some outright pop tunes, and Solberg’s operatic vocal range makes for a frequently sublime listen that doesn’t always gel with listeners who preferred the angular metal of their first four albums. Nevertheless, Leprous’ evolution on Pitfalls follows logically from Malina, and the record features clear standouts, notably “The Sky is Red” with its off-kilter outro stomp, widely beloved among fans and considered a discography highlight. But Pitfalls offers so much more: soothing strings courtesy of Chris Baum (Bent Knee) and Raphael Weinroth-Browne who bring embellishments such as the Bond-esque violins on “Below” and the gorgeous cello solo on “At the Bottom”; flawless production with pitch perfect dynamics; and some of Einar’s most powerful and transcendent vocal work (“Alleviate”, “At the Bottom”, “Distant Bells”). Even so, it’s hard to deny that some of the poppier sojourns on the record like “Observe the Train” or “By My Throne” can lack memorability. For the most part, however, Pitfalls sees Leprous at the absolute pinnacle of their compositional power: it just happens to be in a way that won’t be for every fan.

Write-up by: Christopher

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4. Malina (2017) – 86 points

The first thing that stands out about Malina is the abstract digital landscape of the album cover; you’d be forgiven for thinking Leprous was headed for a foray into the geometric neon lands of synthwave and its associated genres (as I was), but you’d be quite sorely mistaken. Instead, they present a melodic, avant-garde prog rock sound that is mostly absent of much of their prior metal inclinations, opting for big hooky choruses, staccato synth phrases, and jumpy odd-time breaks to spike interest and create movement. A much more accessible release than anything that came before, Malina is not the most progressive leaning—but that doesn’t mean it’s simple, as beneath some of its deceptively direct passages lies a smattering of quite complex metric modulation, as in “Captive”. However, despite some great innovations in the sound of Malina, some of us would have liked for Leprous to further explore some of the more metal and synth ideas presented on the record, like “Mirage”, but the band plays it safe and doesn’t delve too much into either of these elements. Nevertheless, Malina is a release that retains a stark difference to the rest of their discography to this point. 

Write-up by: Francesco

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3. Coal (2013) – 95 points

What can you really do with just a handful of notes? If you happen to be looking at Leprous’ third record, Coal, turns out the answer is a hell of a lot. Opener “Foe” repeats what is effectively a single chord in 7/8 for over half of its runtime, followed by brittle guitar plucks underneath Solberg’s signature vocalizations to ridiculously powerful effect. The post-minimalist bent of “Foe” informs the rest of Coal, relying on skeletal compositions to evoke a bleak, sick, and tormented atmosphere. On “Chronic”, Solberg nervously teeters between complete hopelessness and a full-on mental breakdown, to say nothing of the smoky and suffocating bridge groove; the title track opens with an agonizing guitar/drum rubato, like a decaying machine grinding against its last moving parts; and “The Valley” is gloriously stagnant, its center section languishing around rumbling bass and icy, unrelenting hi-hats. The real zenith (nadir) of Coal, however, is closing track “Contaminate Me”, which is equal parts restless, panicked progressive metal and a torpid wave of blackened avant-garde muck. After five minutes of buildup, the track collapses into screeching, deconstructed violins and erratic percussion underneath an utterly blighted vocal performance by Ihsahn. After over a decade of listening, the ending of “Contaminate Me”—and Coal as a whole—still gives me a pit in my stomach; few prog metal records before or since have successfully scoured the same lows.

Write-up by: Dave

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2. Bilateral (2011) – 102 points

Coherent, cohesive, and connected by an identifiable sonic through line—those are some compositional characteristics that most great albums share. Bilateral has none of that. The young Norwegians move almost at random from the theatrical and melodic “Mb. Indifferentia,” to the rapping and slapping in “Mediocrity Wins,” to the noisy outbursts of “Waste of Air,” and further still to the God-knows-what time signatures that make up the legendary “Forced Entry.” A drooping saxophone and an Ihsahn feature in “Thorn”? Why not. A wonky, sub-three-minute heater with “Cryptogenic Desires”? Sure. When the songwriting is this audacious and the music this compelling, everything Leprous throw at the wall sticks. Bilateral is one of the very, very few albums that shines in its unhinged diversity; the lack of an obvious identity is its identity. The band jammed ten bold, distinct tracks into a record and came away with a modern classic. Each song is pure gold, and the hour-long journey through them is one of the single most entertaining trips progressive metal has to offer. We could stack endless superlatives onto this masterpiece, but we’ll save some for the one Leprous album that somehow managed to top it… 

Write-up by: Cory

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1. The Congregation (2015) – 120 points

Honestly, The Congregation topping this ranking was kind of inevitable, but sometimes fan favorite albums are favorites because they really are just that great. If you asked a dozen Leprous fans why they enjoy their music, you’d probably get a dozen different answers – their command of intricate, off-kilter riffs that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, their stadium-sized, emotional hooks carried by Solberg’s stratospheric tenor, the way they seamlessly weave in electronic and symphonic elements into their soundscapes, and so on. But all of those prospective answers, diverse as they are, have one thing in common: they’re present in abundance on the band’s mid-career masterpiece The Congregation. 

Positioned at the exact inflection point between their erratic, heavy early work and the poppier, more electronica-laden experiments that followed, this album expertly pulls off the best of both worlds. Songs here, more so than on previous efforts, are built on melody first and foremost, with Solberg anchoring each one with a mix of plaintive, gently catchy croons (see: the instantly iconic “ah-aaah-ahh-ahh” that kicks off opener “The Price”) and impassioned, wailing choruses that hit with soul-cracking force (“Third Law”, “Down”). Beneath the surface, however, Leprous are still as boundary-breaking as ever, with the band’s newly-minted rhythm section of Simen Børven (bass) and Baard Kolstad (drums) integrating prior albums’ herky-jerky time signatures into a streamlined, intricate groove that somehow, against all odds, works seamlessly. Kolstad especially is an absolute revelation, with his intricate, tom-heavy drumming driving the breathlessly tense buildup of “Rewind” and the unorthodox beat of “Within My Fence”. Taken together, The Congregation’s tuneful hooks and tricky rhythms provide an incredible sense of tension and dynamic growth, with melodies and riffs hypnotically repeating and building upon themselves until the dam finally breaks in a glorious burst of catharsis (“The Flood”, “Slave”). True, The Congregation isn’t every fan’s favorite Leprous album. Some vibe more with the controlled chaos of Bilateral, others with the emotional arcs of Aphelion, and so on. But with its pitch-perfect blend of basically everything that makes them one of the most popular acts in today’s prog metal landscape, it’s hard to argue that it isn’t the Leprous album, one that stands tall as one of the genre’s most essential albums. 

Write-up by: Ian

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Leprous‘ links: Facebook | Instagram

Label: InsideOut Music

Leprous is:
– Einar Solberg – lead vocals, keyboards (2001–present)
– Tor Oddmund Suhrke – guitars, backing vocals (2001–present)
– Baard Kolstad – drums (2014–present)
– Simen Børven – bass, backing vocals (2015–present)
– Robin Ognedal – guitars, backing vocals (2017–present)

Former members:
– Stian Lonar – bass (2001–2002)
– Esben Meyer Kristensen – guitars (2001–2003)
– Kenneth Solberg – guitars (2001–2003, 2003–2004)
– Truls Vennman – drums (2001–2005)
– Halvor Strand – bass (2002–2010)
– Øystein Landsverk – guitars, backing vocals (2004–2017)
– Tor Stian Borhaug – drums (2005–2007)
– Tobias Ørnes Andersen – drums (2007–2014)
– Rein Blomquist – bass (2010–2013)
– Martin Skrebergene – bass (2013–2015)

1.  Our statisticians say that the central limit theorem requires a sample size of thirty. ↩︎