Beginning as a progressive metal band, they’ve continually pushed their sound and expanded into new sounds and textures, cementing themselves as one of the most interesting and sonically diverse bands in heavy music. Widely heralded as a career high, previous album Pitfalls was a deeply personal affair, chronicling multi-instrumentalist and singer Einar Solberg’s struggles with anxiety and depression. With seventh album Aphelion, they’ve continued along the introspective route and have opened up their sound even further.
If nothing else, this is an album of contrasts for many reasons. Initially conceived of as an EP, the band simply continued writing when they realised something more could be made of it. Not only this, but thanks to the global pandemic, they were forced to record it across three separate studios, in different ways and at different times. For all these differences, Aphelion stands as a cohesive body of work, despite also not being written as an album but a collection of songs that were assembled after the fact.
Opener ‘Running Low’ is dramatic but initially understated; repeating piano chords underscore Einar’s voice and utilises repeating phrases in the lyrics as the song builds. The strings lend an epic feel without going necessarily into full-blown symphonic territory, a fine line that they mostly successfully walk throughout. ‘Out Of Here’ feels reminiscent of some of the songs on Pitfalls in its softer opening with keys and crooning vocals, evoking a dream-like sequence before the staccato and swelling in the second half.
‘Have You Ever?’ is perhaps the only song on here without the more typical Leprous pay-off moment; it moves serenely throughout, though contrasts this with a tense atmosphere that’s often carried by the bass, its lower register offering a counterpoint to the rest of the track. Following song ‘The Silent Revelation’ brings an almost funk guitar lick and an off-kilter drum part, but the chorus itself is pure Leprous with Einar’s soaring, angelic voice.
Given that this is an album of contrasts, it’s only right that the closing song on here, ‘Nighttime Disguise’, is as sprawling and almost gothic, the symphonics and strings lending ever more drama to proceedings in stark contrast to ‘Running Low’. A swirling, repeating guitar motif opens and the off-kilter time signature is disorienting, at first. It becomes truly captivating, though, as all falls away but a lone piano and Einar around the midway mark; from here the song only expands and crescendos, culminating in the first and only time on Aphelion that we’re treated to Einar’s growled vocals which are a real emotional gutpunch. It’s a near perfect end to both the song and the album.
As ever, though his voice is often the focal point for many, the rest of the band simply cannot be overlooked. Baard Kolstad offers some of the most mind-bending, forward thinking drum parts this side of Mario Duplantier and the dynamism he shows across the album, even within single songs such as the aforementioned ‘The Silent Revelation’ is masterful. The guitar work from Tor Oddmund Suhrkhe and Robin Ognedal deserves mention as well; it often sounds far more simple than it is, offering a rhythmic and melodic counterpoint to the rhythm section of Simen Børven on bass and Baard’s drumming.
The word Aphelion refers to the furthest point an object reaches in its orbit; it certainly holds meaning here with the more personal tales of struggle and the idea that the orbit will only grow closer from that point. It also remarks on how far the band have come from their starting point and the changes they’ve undergone sonically and stylistically, while still orbiting the core that is Leprous’ identity, as much as it has shifted. In both senses, then, it manages to help unify all the various contrasts across the album under a single banner – though it is by no means a concept album – into a radical statement, showcasing both their heaviest and most delicate material to date. As much as Pitfalls was a career-defining moment, Aphelion continues their upward trajectory, expanding their sonic palette without sacrificing quality or their own identity and makes a serious argument for being a new career high.