Shayan Afzal

I put on Pitfalls without knowing what to expect. I had never listened to Leprous before. I thought it would be another progressive metal record with the usual intensity. Instead I found something quieter and more disarming. The album feels like someone opening a notebook filled with private thoughts that were never meant to be shared.

What stood out was how the record deals with anxiety without turning it into a dramatic performance. The music stays close to the feeling of being overwhelmed. The long stretches of soft vocals. The moments where the instrumentation holds back instead of exploding. It reminds you of the hours when your mind keeps circling the same thoughts and you feel like you are slipping inside yourself. There is an honesty to it that caught me off guard.

The album works as one complete story. It follows a mind that is struggling to understand its own reactions. The songs move through fear, confusion, exhaustion and then small flashes of clarity. Nothing feels rushed. Nothing tries to rescue you. It just sits with the emotions until they begin to make sense. I think that is why it connected with me. I have not fully digested it yet but it felt true in a way that very few albums manage. It is rare to hear music that allows silence to speak this loudly.

Pitfalls leaves room for interpretation. The lyrics do not guide you to a simple answer. They feel more like fragments of thoughts that you recognize from your own life. You can read loneliness in them. You can read self correction. You can read the moment when you realise your mind is both the problem and the way out. The openness is what gives the album its weight. Each listener can place their own inner world between the lines.

By the end of the record you feel a subtle shift. Not a triumphant recovery. Not a breakdown either. Just a sense that you are still here and you are learning yourself again. That is what I took from this first listen. Pitfalls feels like a quiet companion for anyone who is trying to understand their own mind while life refuses to slow down.

For a first encounter with Leprous this was unexpected. I am not calling it love yet. I need time with music before I let it settle that deeply. But this album made me stop and pay attention. And that alone says something.