Leprous

Leprous was born in Notodden in 2001, the brainchild of two school friends, Einar Solberg and Tor Oddmund Suhrke. In the early 2000s, these Nordic prog metalheads were producing mainly demos and struggled with nearly constant line-up changes. A breakthrough came when in 2009 the band, having finally formed a stable line-up, recorded their debut album “Tall Poppy Syndrome”. The record was well-received by the prog metal community and the Norwegians promote it as the support for Therion on their European tour. Since then the band only gained momentum, and being Ihsahn’s backing band certainly didn’t hurt.

The band’s approach to progressive metal evolved, reaching for different musical alloys with each record. The turning point came with two records, the 2013 “Coal” and the 2015 “The Congregation“– these two albums paved the way to the big club stages for the band. The subsequent “Malina”, “Pitfalls” and “Aphelion” – closer to art pop and a departure from the band’s origins – solidified Leprous’s place as an important act on the progressive scene.

From the release of “The Congregation” onwards, Leprous’s albums regularly chart high in many European countries, with “Aphelion” going 11th in Finland and 22nd in Germany for top record sales. The Congregation was even nominated for a Spellemannprisen, the Norwegian equivalent of a Grammy.