Ihsahn has only performed once in North America thus far — at this year’s ProgPower Festival — which means that most of us who live in these parts have never had the opportunity to see the man perform his awesome, awesome solo work live in the flesh.

So hoo-ray for the below video, which is a relatively high quality of an Ihsahn performance in Tokyo from earlier this week. His backing band, of course, is the mighty Leprous, who are also quite cool, so this video is twice as must-watchable as it woulda been already. Enjoy!

-AR

[via Heavy Blog is Heavy]

FEATURING MEMBERS OF ARCH ENEMY, THAT METAL SHOW, BLACK ANVIL, ABIGAIL WILLIAMS, AND LEPROUS

Every year year, MetalSucks asks musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year have been. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of nine to ten musicians at a time two to three times a day for the whole week.

After the jump, check out the next group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

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The new video for “Restless” by Leprous — aka Ihshan’s live backing band — is a doozy. It’s given me with an opportunity to remember why I liked Bilateral enough to premiere a track from it back in August; it’s also really… fucking… weird.

The press release touting the “Restless” video boasts that the band “expect[s] you to understand the entire chain of events during the first watching.” Well, I’ve watched this thing three times now and I still have no idea what the fuck is going on. Help me out here.

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Only five releases today, which is fine, because it’s my birthday and my college started classes back up yesterday. We still have a bunch of stuff coming out this fall to get excited about, but this week is highlighted by releases from Leprous and Atriarch, as well as ICS Vortex’s first solo album. To the reviewing!

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Word to the wise: don’t give up on the above video just ’cause it’s not metal. Stick with it. You will be pleased. Honest Injun.

And after you’ve watched, why not review some of our top stories from this week? For example –

• We debuted new music from Leprous and Ihsahn.
• Daath’s Eyal Levi declared that not all people are created equal.
• Francesco Artusato from All Shall Perish and Aaron Beam from Red Fang told us about their live rigs.
• We checked out the latest releases from Today is the Day and Eschaton.
• Vince, Anso, Gary, and Leyla unveiled their respective favorite albums of 2011 thus far.
• We started celebrating 31 days of Faith No More.
• We got an in-depth analysis of the genius of Crazy Town.
• We suggested that the Insane Clown Posse might wanna re-think their stance on concert security.
• We hired Manowar to play our next office party.
• We broke the news that Last Chance to Reason have parted ways with two members.

Next week we make the biggest announcement of our lives. Be there or be be square.

-AR

If you’re a regular MetalSucks reader and you like Ihsahn — and there’s a good chance you do like Ihsahn very much considering MS readers voted his album After as their collective #1 favorite of 2010 — then you’re already familiar with Leprous whether you know it or not. The entirety of the dudes that make up Leprous are Ihsahn’s live backing band, meaning European readers who’ve been lucky enough to see Ihsahn live have basically already seen Leprous and any Americans attending ProgPower in Atlanta next month will get to see them too. That should be enough to immediately validate Leprous… but we’ve got new music for you too.

No coincidence then that the Leprodudes convinced Ihsahn to lend his trademark vocals to the track “Thorn” on their forthcoming album Bilateral, out August 22nd in Europe and August 23rd in North America via InsideOut Music (pre-order here). Leprous are more outwardly proggy than their work with Ihsahn might suggest, but no less skilled; Bilateral is an engaging and unique listen that’s sure to appeal to progressively minded metal-heads. Check out the worldwide exclusive premiere of “Thorn” below.

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Before you criticize Norwegian prog-metal prodigies (prog-igies?) Leprous for bestowing a lame flower-themed title on their second album, Tall Poppy Syndrome, consider its meaning: a societal phenomenon in which distinguished or successful individuals are resented for achievements that separate them from the average person. Just the kind of thinking that would be the downfall of a group as freakishly talented as Leprous. ‘Twas their preternatural chops that led Emperor frontman Ihsahn to hand-pick Leprous as the backing band for his first and only solo concert. Ihsahn also drafted the group’s lead vocalist/keyboardist Einar Solberg (his brother-in-law) to play live with Emperor for a string of reunion gigs. That’s like God giving you a high-five.

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