Prog, Pop and Progress

By stripping back their instrumentation, Norway's art-rock sensations Leprous have found a different beast lurking below. Heavier and catchier than ever, they hope it can help them reach new frontiers. Prog catches up with vocalist Einar Solberg and guitarist Tor Oddmund Suhrke to uncover the story behind their new album, Melodies Of Atonement.

- Phil Weller

Einar Solberg, Leprous’s vocalist and chief composer, says the band’s ninth LP, Melodies Of Atonement, is lots of things. It’s heavy, stripped-back and, curiously, cites gangster rap as a major influence. But the one thing Solberg says the record isn’t, is prog.

“I think this album will be quite unifying,” he says of a long-player the Norwegians hope can please fans of their earlier, more metallic material, while luring fresh listeners from outside of prog’s borders into their domain.

And yet, by the record’s very nature, it’s progressive. Melodies Of Atonement is another superlative example of how Leprous are able to redefine prog’s most beloved hallmarks for the contemporary landscape. Its sound is instantly recognisable as Leprous – Solberg even admits that they “would need to make an extreme effort” to write something that wasn’t – but the approach to its composition is different: it’s ambitious, explorative.

It could just be that the band are conscious of what defining this record as ‘prog’ will do to their wider marketing. Solberg has already talked up 2025 plans that will see the band “focus on bigger, more exclusive shows with bigger production”, so perhaps they’re trying to be a little more Face Value and a little less Selling England By The Pound. It’s a sentiment Riverside’s Mariusz Duda shared when writing 2023’s pop-tinged ID.Entity.

“I grew up on cassettes in the 80s – artists like Pet Shop Boys, A-ha, Kate Bush,” Solberg recalls. “They were pop but they had something else, so why not connect with that stuff? Prog doesn’t have to be all about 70s sounds.”