Kicking off with the Opeth-esque dirge of "Passing," Syndrome immediately establishes itself as the work of a band still carving out its identity. Einar Solberg's Euro-English power metal vocals drop any sense of art-rock symbolism and mythology in favor of stream-of-consciousness, high school poetry class lamentations ("Dragging my anvil of pain / betrayed / abandoned / rejected by life . . . soon is the moment I die").

More than anything else, it's this kind of youthful uncertainty that informs much of Syndrome, be it the operatic vocals almost too tasteful for the delightful wickedness of "He Will Kill Again" or the piano and moving pitch-bent keyboard lead driving the middle section of "Phantom Pain" between polar opposite territory already staked out by Manowar on one end and, Return to Forever on the other.

Yet like many debuts from many young bands, the preponderance of kitchen-sink songcraft behind Syndrome ultimately hurts the album as a whole in its unfocused ambition rather than helping it with its genre-bending aspirations. Leprous show themselves fully capable of creating killer riffs, flawless changes, great sections and some surprisingly moving passages. But by trying to do all of those at once, they mostly end up accomplishing none of them.

Tall Poppy Syndrome isn't a bad metal album, but not really a great one, either; as musicians, Leprous have nothing left to prove but, as Tall Poppy Syndrome shows, their songwriting still has quite a ways to go.

Recommended Tracks: The driving rock of "Dare You" layers some ridiculously catchy guitar leads with the mightiest of organ sounds over a middle section with a prog-rock groove for the ages; speed, thrash and operatic metal lovers alike will find plenty of reasons to love the furious, shifting "Not Even a Name."

-Andrew Reilly