THE HARD STUFF ALBUMS

Leprous

Pitfalls SONY/INSIDE OUT

Stronger without metal.

Eighteen years into their career, although only 10 since they released their first album, for their sixth studio album Norwegian prog-metallers Leprous have loosened the metallic ties that bind, and instead focused on progression.

It’s a bold switch of style but one that the band foreshadowed on 2017’s Malina, which was notably less harsh-sounding, particularly when it came to Einar Solberg’s vocals; he certainly sounds more convincing as a fragile human being than as a guttural beast.

Like their previous albums, Pitfalls takes a thematic approach, except this time it’s more personal as Solberg confronts his own depression and anxieties. And an angry roar is insufficient when it comes to accepting and then tackling the demons that conspire to bring him down.

Obviously there is anger, particularly on the opening slow and portentous Below where he seeks to bury his problems (‘And I will lie, lie, keep it all together’), but that’s just the first of many mood swings that Solberg describes with deft lyrical and musical control. Like the almost reflective stance on his feelings of despair on I Lose Hope, which is carried along by what feels like a dance groove, his acceptance of those feelings on the dreamy, atmospheric Observe The Train, which is followed by the hectic, regressive By My Throne with its barrage of interconnected vocals and guitar outbursts from Tor Oddmund Suhrke, as if Solberg has just woken from a vivid dream and is trying to make sense of it all.

Anchoring the mood swings is a common structure underlying the songs which invariably start with synthesised beats and keyboards to set the scene before the guitar and drums make their moves. They’ve also added a violinist and cellist who come with their own arrangements to enhance the band’s already crowded soundscapes.

The first half of Pitfalls is surprisingly accessible – almost poppy at times – which might not please their hard-core fans although it could bring them a broader audience. The songs further into the album get more experimental, climaxing with the ambitious The Sky Is Red which features a classical choir and dense layers of sound to make its point. Just don’t expect a happy ending.

Pitfalls is best listened to the way Solberg and Leprous intended: from beginning to end, and probably on headphones to keep the outside world at bay. It will still take a few plays before you get it, but isn’t that what prog is supposed to be about?

Hugh Fielder

Various

If You’re Going To The City – A Tribute To Mose Allison FAT POSSUM

Iggy, Costello et al join charity comp romp.

When jazz great Mose Allison passed away aged 89 in 2016, he left behind the kind of back catalogue that cries out to be covered. His brand of jazz-inflected blues piano was trademarked by the kind of pithy, sardonic lyrics that were irreverently ahead of their time.

So when a collection of contrasting voices tackle his songs for charity here, it’s that character of songwriting which shines through a diverse range of new styles laid upon it. Robbie Fulks’s lively bluegrass treatment of works brilliantly, while the synth backing and swirling brass decoration on Iggy Pop’s offsets his mischievous drawl perfectly. Finally, make for a memorable last hurrah.