TAKE A BOW
LEPROUS
VENUE O2 SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE, LONDON
DATE 07/02/2023
SUPPORT MONUMENTS, KALANDRA
While Kalandra lift…
Lovers of Leprous have been spoilt since the pandemic. Over the past two years, the Norwegian prog idols have flown across the North Sea four times to enchant our island with their uniquely pop-, rock- and trip hop-flavoured anthems. First it was that 20th-anniversary run, where they performed two songs from each of their seven albums in chronological order. Then they supported Devin Townsend at the Royal Albert Hall, ahead of festival slots at Radar and ArcTanGent last summer.
For all those forays into Blighty though, Leprous have never had the opportunity to play a headline show spotlighting the melodies and creative breadth of their latest album, 2021’s Aphelion. The band have long maintained the belief that genre constraints are bullshit, and that LP’s balance of symphonic grandeur, prog rhythms and radio-baiting hooks flaunt that fact. So too does the smörgåsbord of artists that have been picked to open for them tonight.
“Leprous have reaffirmed themselves as prog’s most consistently flawless live act.”
Starting the evening in front of a pleasingly packed O2 Empire are Kalandra, whose convergence of prog, folk, pop and rock sounds like it was written by Kate Bush and Wardruna while they were snowed in at some Scandinavian shack. Dainty acoustic guitars are layered on top of booming war drums, yet it’s singer Katrine Stenbekk who’s most hypnotic. Her lengthy vocal lines run the gamut from hums to all-consuming wails, and by the time she’s powered through the crescendo of Borders, she’s affirmed her band as must-watch prospects. Give them money now.
While Kalandra want to hypnotise you into a fantasy land, Monuments are out to bludgeon you to hell. There’s no cushioning from the fact that they’re a burly prog metal band, especially when frontman Andy Cizek is growling his lungs out and a contingent of headbangers are opening a whirlpool of a moshpit up front. However, looking past the audial violence of their roars and riffs, there’s an undeniable precision to what these lads do. While Cizek belts out many a soulfully sung chorus (hopefully he’ll become the first Monuments vocalist to actually stick around for a bit), the musicians around him indulge in fast-fingered playing and polyrhythms. As The Cimmerian, the eight-minute finale to last year’s avant-garde opus In Stasis, ends the set, it’s impossible to dispute these aggressors’ prog credentials.
Very few bands could make sense after a bill of atmospheric rock succeeded by rampaging prog metal. But Leprous do. After all, the quintet originally emerged as acolytes of prog maverick Ihsahn, and early albums Tall Poppy Syndrome and Bilateral were feasts of heavy maximalism seasoned with the occasional scream. The decade since, though, has been all about reeling back the heaviness and dialling up the eclecticism, flirting with whatever genres Einar Solberg and co are drawn to that day.
Opener and Aphelion deep cut Have You Ever? makes no bones about showing off the Norwegians’ style-smashing ways. Its pulsing synths are gradually joined by stark drum beats and math rock guitar chords, while the cellos are played live by unofficial sixth member Raphael Weinroth-Browne. It’s a slow warm-up for the big smoke, though it also establishes many a constant that’ll stay throughout the night.
Mind-bending (and wrist-straining) prog goodness!
…Monuments crush!
For starters, Leprous look like stars. Every shuffling rhythm is accompanied by its own blast of spotlights, while colours vibrantly flow up and down LED tubes across the stage. The splendour peaks early when Have You Ever? explodes into the off-kilter guitar hits that introduce The Price, yet frontman Solberg is confidently rooted to the ground, playing his synthesiser and casually crooning the most splendid of falsetto notes. His vocal prowess has long been well documented, and tonight is no exception, especially when Castaway Angels floats from acoustic balladry to a post-rock climax.
Leprous clearly relish in finally honouring Aphelion, since six of its 10 tracks are thrust onto the setlist. However, Bilateral’s Restless also sneaks in: a vigorous lob back to the band’s prog metal roots, defined by its twiddling guitars and shouting hook. As much as it’s an endearing Easter egg, tonight’s clearly more about honouring the now. And honoured it should be. On Aphelion, Leprous concocted the most boundary-destroying tunes of their entire career. Now, on its supporting tour, they’ve reaffirmed themselves as prog’s most consistently flawless live act.?
MATT MILLS
Simen Børven means business!
KEVIN NIXON
Einar Solberg leads the congregation in a flawless set.
Leprous are so wrapped up in the moment, they fail to notice the spaceship landing behind them…
Leprous blind us with their talent.
Solberg and co can finally put Aphelion under the spotlight.
Tor Oddmund Suhrke: destroying boundaries.
KATATONIA / SÓLSTAFIR
VENUE O2 FORUM KENTISH TOWN, LONDON
DATE 10/02/2023
SUPPORT SOM
You have to feel sorry for SOM. When the Americans arrive to serenade the O2 Forum with their proginflected shoegaze, it’s 10 minutes after doors and almost nobody’s about. However, those who walk in during the set get the most crystalline of entrance music complemented by frontman Will Benoit’s drawn-out croons.
The singer and his bandmates are silhouetted against their backdrop, yet SOM still look like stars. Spotlights shine through the rising smoke and flash with every striking snare. It all cultivates a visual magnificence that not even tonight’s first headliner can emulate.
For Sólstafir, emotional devastation is all that matters. Post-rock’s saddest cowboys take the stage under a blue hue, with zero frills, and immediately let their melancholic music and Icelandiclanguage lamentations envelope London. It’s depressed prog music shoved through the filter of classic rock, as the four-piece repeatedly crescendo from windswept ambience to uptempo drums and chords. And it’s a spell that never wanes.
The audience are often caught in a standstill, letting the sorrow wash over them, although megahit Fjara does beget roars of delight. Also, frontman Addi Tryggvason seems to be in ironically high spirits. Not only does he introduce his band by paraphrasing Led Zeppelin (“We’re Sólstafir and we come from the land of the ice and snow!”), he then indulges in some repartee with his audience ahead of Goddess Of The Ages, trying to ignite the best screams he can. For anybody who finds glee in the gloomy, these 75 minutes are nirvana.
Katatonia are merchants of misery too, but the similarities between them and their tourmates end there. Instead of sweeping landscapes, the Swedes deal in svelte anthems inspired by rainsoaked cities. Londoners can relate. Opener Austerity observes ‘I hear traffic behind/Violent rain…’, painting an urban setting as intense as the song’s polyrhythmic drum pattern. Birds later follows suit, begging for clear skies through its bright refrain, after dropping an Iron Maiden-esque guitar lead on top of shuffling percussion.
All the while, the purveyors of such infectious angst are concealed in smoke, their shadows cast against looming green lighting. The lack of rock star showmanship comes full circle to create darkly enigmatic theatre, like when the outline of singer Jonas Renkse humbly bows at the end of Old Heart Falls’ chorus. His introduction of My Twin reveals shades of Scandinavian humour (“This is, I think, our only hit song”) but, beyond that, this is bleak from the word go. The irony is that such sing-alongs as July and Evidence have actually lent the Forum escape from the dreary cityscape outside for just one fleeting evening.
MATT MILLS