Best Songs from Leprous' Tall Poppy Syndrome
Tall Poppy Syndrome is the first studio album released by the Norwegian progressive metal band, Leprous. It was recorded and mixed at Black Lounge Studio/The Abyss by Jonas Kjellgren, mastered at West West Side by Alan Douchess. It was released under Sensory Records on the 5th of May, 2009.The intro to this song is more powerful than the climaxes of most songs, and the vocals are undoubtedly at their peak here, with some absolutely amazing screams to completely catch you off guard. The song is just consistently amazing throughout its length. The use of the same melody for a prominent guitar riff, as well as the main vocal line is also really cool, especially since it is an absolutely amazing melody.
I feel like this song has a very slight Mars Volta feel to it, especially in terms of some of the riffs used, as well as the much more dramatic nature of the song all around. The sudden transition at about the two minute mark is absolutely exquisite as well, leading into an absolutely amazing bassline. This is easily one of my favourite songs on this album.
The constant switching between the foreboding soft, clean sections and the harsher ones is really well implemented, as the build up to each subsequent loud section is increasingly intense, all leading up to the amazing climax where unbridled aggression is clearly displayed with an amazingly chilling scream.
Wonderful opener!
I appreciate the way this starts off as a pleasant acoustic ballad, until the piano comes in and kicks the song up quite a few gears. I really like the energy present in the chorus, and find the piano to be really fun.
I find the structure of this song to be quite interesting, having fairly sparse vocals, focusing more on shifts in tone throughout. That said, I really love both the rhythmic and melodic elements of the song, and the extremely groovy bassline. What little vocal lines there are sound amazing as well, having a great deal of power behind them
While I do find this song to be decent, when put up against the rest of the absolutely stunning album, I find it to be slightly below the rest of the songs in terms of how engaging I find it. I really do find the spoken word elements to add a lot of atmosphere to the song however, and it is still far from bad.
Compared to the wildly experimental nature of other songs on the album, this one stands out as something much more conventional. Despite this, I do find each aspect of the band to be playing very well, and I do find the djent part at the end to be really cool. Despite the more conventional aspects of the song, I still find it to be extremely good all around.
Definitely a much more starightforward, emotional song compared to the rest of the album. I find the guitar work here to be some of the best on the album, and absolutely love it. The one issue I have is the tthe softer vocals sound a bit odd at points, especially with some of the high sustained notes, ultimately reducing some of my enjoyment of the song.