Band:	Leprous
Album:	Pitfalls
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	October 25, 2019
Guest review by:	andreosokin

01. Below
02. I Lose Hope
03. Observe The Train
04. By My Throne
05. Alleviate
06. At The Bottom
07. Distant Bells
08. Foreigner
09. The Sky Is Red

Still feels like Leprous, but it takes you on a different journey. And it's great.

I discovered Leprous in 2013 when I heard their iconic album Coal - my favorite album of that year. It had some insane odd and syncopated rhythms, extreme vocals and lots of dramatic elements. Even though Pitfalls takes us on a lighter journey musically, with clean singing only, it still has that same awesome dramatic vibe and interesting time signatures which may not sound so obvious from a first glance. It has lots of new elements and I feel like it's their best album since Coal.

Many fans would reject the addition of RnB-like rhythms in songs like "Below" or "I Lose Hope" and the overall songwriting approach, but I think it shows the development of the band and the ability not to make same sounding albums over and over again. This album also features a record amount of falsetto singing which has already become a trademark for Einar Solberg, and no, they did not capture any extreme vocals this time. On the other hand, we have "The Sky Is Red", the final track on the album, which is also the heaviest piece, and I personally think it combines elements of all the previous albums that they did; many old fans will probably like it the most.

I also enjoyed the sound production on this album, even though they didn't hire my mixing hero Jens Bogren this time. Leprous recorded live strings (oh yes) for this album, and they sit perfectly in the mix with every other instrument sounding sweet. And the snare drum sounds awesome, yes.

Overall, I think Pitfalls is an excellent record, which takes several spins to "get it". But it's totally worth the purchase.

My favorite tracks would be: "Distant Bells" / "The Sky Is Red" / "Alleviate"