Leprous are one of those bands that you listen to and pre-order new records from because you want to see them evolve. I got into them in 2012, after coming across their 2011 release 'Bilateral'. I was moving swiftly through metal bands trying to find something more atmospheric and dynamic than what the mainstream festivals were offering; most of all looking for something that stood out as different, and Leprous ticked those boxes. I also felt, after listening through Bilateral a few times, that Leprous were a band that would always be changing, trying new things. Nothing hurts more that when a band you have been following avidly puts out the same record twice in a row (except when they do it three times in a row.)
The Congregation does not disappoint. There is enough of the Leprous from their previous recordings so as to be familiar, but they push the envelope on songs like 'The Price' and 'Red' offers the next evolutionary stage of their syncopated odd-time groove; darkness happens on 'Slave' that had not yet happened in this band. The production style is a bit heavier also; someone has turned up the overdrive slightly which changes the album for the better. Leprous have three times in a row showed themselves to be at the forefront of progressive heavy music of Europe, The Congregation makes it four.
