An Exclusive Evening with Leprous at o2 Forum Kentish Town, London 2025

Before I tell you about Leprous’ show in o2 Forum Kentish Town, I have a small confession to make – I was never a big fan of the band.

My awareness of them goes back as far as I remember attending my first progressive metal and rock gigs and somehow, I could never personally connect with their art. Having an opportunity to watch them in full, headline set that was not interrupted by supports tempted me to see the show and form my opinion on Leprous as a band. And I reckon I have experienced something very special, that will be hard to top in the future. 

First of all – the whole gig was split into two parts. The first set had eleven songs, including their most known composition – “The Price”, the opening song from the 2015 album “The Congregation” – as well as “Silently Walking Alone”, “I Hear the Sirens”, “Like a Sunken Ship” from the most recent album – “Melodies Of Atonement”. That part of the show was demure, calmed down but engaging with occasional puns from Einar, the band’s vocalist, despite having large technical issues straight that forced a short, unplanned after (ironically enough) “Forced Entry”, Leprous still managed to bounce back like pros to finish first set and give a moment of breather for fans for the second segment of their London’s concert.  

After 15 minutes, the band came back with the “lighter” set that let them really bloom on stage. It opened with “Unfree my Soul”, the ending song of “Melodies Of Atonement”.  The theatrical feel of the tune was a perfect choice for re-engaging the crowd at O2 Forum and continued to even better and more grandiose performances of “Below” from 2019 record “Pitfalls” and the best moment of the night – “Faceless”. The latter was absolutely enormous with primarily calm vocals from Einar… to the crowning moment of inviting friends and family to sing together in choir. With my eagle eye I could also spot some known faces in that choir including Iamthemorning vocalist Marjana Semkina, Ross Jenkins from Haken and (surprisingly) Mike Malyan, multi-instrumentalist and ex-drummer of UK progressive metal legends – Monuments. Also, what absolutely stole my heart was Einar’s little talk about always singing a special song in the native language of a country they currently perform. Being in London “singing in English is not impressive” in Einar’s opinion, so he took a moment to give a shout-out to a (relatively) new live member of the band and another London’s progressive scene hero – the keyboardist, theatre musical director and long-term guitarist of Novena Harrison White. It was so wholesome to see Leprous fans chant Harrison’s name and see how emotional it was for him to receive such love from people in the room.  

It would be very ignorant of me if I did not mention the outstanding musicianship of other band members. The more I watch Tor (guitar), Robin (guitar), Simen (bass) and Baard (drums) perform together, the better and better they sound and deliver a musical foundation of exceptional vocals of Einar. Specifically watching the rhythmic section performed by Simen and Baard is excellent. The latter player is a drum machine – the tightness of the hits every single time is immaculate and watching it live absolutely amplifies it higher. 

Before I tell you about Leprous’ show in o2 Forum Kentish Town, I have a small confession to make – I was never a big fan of the band.

My awareness of them goes back as far as I remember attending my first progressive metal and rock gigs and somehow, I could never personally connect with their art. Having an opportunity to watch them in full, headline set that was not interrupted by supports tempted me to see the show and form my opinion on Leprous as a band. And I reckon I have experienced something very special, that will be hard to top in the future. 

A Gig of two halves

First of all – the whole gig was split into two parts. The first set had eleven songs, including their most known composition – “The Price”, the opening song from the 2015 album “The Congregation” – as well as “Silently Walking Alone”, “I Hear the Sirens”, “Like a Sunken Ship” from the most recent album – “Melodies Of Atonement”. That part of the show was demure, calmed down but engaging with occasional puns from Einar, the band’s vocalist, despite having large technical issues straight that forced a short, unplanned after (ironically enough) “Forced Entry”, Leprous still managed to bounce back like pros to finish first set and give a moment of breather for fans for the second segment of their London’s concert.  

After 15 minutes, the band came back with the “lighter” set that let them bloom on stage. It opened with “Unfree my Soul”, the ending song of “Melodies Of Atonement”.  The theatrical feel of the tune was a perfect choice for re-engaging the crowd at O2 Forum and continued to even better and more grandiose performances of “Below” from 2019 record “Pitfalls” and the best moment of the night – “Faceless”. The latter was enormous with primarily calm vocals from Einar… to the crowning moment of inviting friends and family to sing together in choir. With my eagle eye I could also spot some known faces in that choir including Iamthemorning vocalist Marjana Semkina, Ross Jenkins from Haken and (surprisingly) Mike Malyan, multi-instrumentalist and ex-drummer of UK progressive metal legends – Monuments.

Also, what absolutely stole my heart was Einar’s little talk about always singing a special song in the native language of a country they currently perform. Being in London “singing in English is not impressive” in Einar’s opinion, so he took a moment to give a shout-out to a (relatively) new live member of the band and another London’s progressive scene hero – the keyboardist, theatre musical director and long-term guitarist of Novena Harrison White. It was so wholesome to see Leprous fans chant Harrison’s name and see how emotional it was for him to receive such love from people in the room.  

It would be very ignorant of me if I did not mention the outstanding musicianship of other band members. The more I watch Tor (guitar), Robin (guitar), Simen (bass) and Baard (drums) perform together, the better and better they sound and deliver a musical foundation of exceptional vocals of Einar. Specifically watching the rhythmic section performed by Simen and Baard is excellent. The latter player is a drum machine – the tightness of the hits every single time is immaculate and watching it live amplifies it higher. 

Leprous Keep Pushing Forward

I won’t lie by saying this was the best performance of Leprous I have seen so far. Seeing them twice on tour promoting their earlier album “Aphelion”, as well as their original set of song requests from Radar Festival 2024 – this concert was fantastic. Great engagement with the crowd, musical delivery, staging with carbon dioxide cannons, full-blown rockstar-style stage performance… I didn’t have time to get even slightly disinterested. Even a technical mishap wasn’t a long-term problem. Watching the show in a split set-up does wonders for their stage presence and makes the whole impression of their art incredible. On top of that if we add more music from their last album – it’s the recipe for success. Moving forward I feel they are finally ready to become a global prog force that everyone should reckon with.

I don’t want to sound like I diminish their previous successes, but in my eyes, this concert and recent release completed a full-circle moment for them and should move only upwards from now on.  

I won’t lie by saying this was the best performance of Leprous I have seen so far. Seeing them twice on tour promoting their earlier album “Aphelion”, as well as their original set of song requests from Radar Festival 2024 – this concert was fantastic. Great engagement with the crowd, musical delivery, staging with carbon dioxide cannons, full-blown rockstar-style stage performance… I didn’t have time to get even slightly disinterested. Even a technical mishap wasn’t a long-term problem. Watching the show in a split set-up does wonders for their stage presence and makes the whole impression of their art incredible. On top of that if we add more music from their last album – it’s the recipe for success. Moving forward I feel they are finally ready to become a global prog force that everyone should reckon with.

I don’t want to sound like I diminish their previous successes, but in my eyes, this concert and recent release completed a full-circle moment for them and should move only upwards from now on.  

Artists: Leprous