by Steve Joyce
I first encountered Einar Solberg’s extraordinary talent when I bought “Coal”, 2013’s third album by Norwegian progressive metal band Leprous. I’d never heard of Leprous – it was a spontaneous purchase made purely because of the startling album artwork. With music to match the imagery, I was immediately entranced by the band’s melodramatic sound, mastery of dynamic contrast and superb musicianship. Songs like “Chronic” and “The Cloak” totally blew me away. The vocals were unlike any other I’d heard before: incredible range, astonishing power, ethereal grace and palpable emotion – ladies and gentlemen, the incomparable Einar Solberg! More recently, Leprous albums “Pitfalls” and “Aphelion” rank among my favourite of recent years, and their 2025 live album “An Evening of Atonement” is a ‘must listen’.
Solberg, twice winner of Prog magazine’s Best Vocalist of the Year award, launched a parallel solo career in 2023, with the acclaimed album “16”. With a diverse sonic palette embracing electronic and orchestral textures, pop sensibility and even a burst of rap, Prog Report’s review hailed the album as “compelling” and praised Solberg’s “poignant vocal delivery and dynamic technical display”.
It’s already clear that Solberg has established a rich musical pedigree and a towering reputation across the progressive music scene. Now, “Vox Occulta”, his second solo album, aims to enhance this further. Unashamedly proclaimed as “bold, heavy and symphonic”, Solberg makes no secret of his passion for making thrilling music. “I want to be seen as the cinematic person in prog,” he declares. “I want to completely own that. This is a very cinematic album, and that’s what I was aiming at: to make it bigger, but also more fragile and emotional at other moments.”
Objective achieved! “Vox Occulta” has eight songs and a nearly 55-minute runtime. Each track has its own character, but there’s a musical cohesiveness and the album flows well. It exhibits all of the qualities proudly announced in the publicity and plenty more besides. Make no mistake: this is truly awesome music!
The lyrics are personal and provide a portrait of Solberg and how he views the world in 2026. The title track, Latin for ‘hidden voice’, is about his “worst impulses and worst feelings”. Other themes explored in the album are the fragility of life, envy, and finding peace after hardship. I found the lyrics to be vivid, relatable, and thought-provoking.
Other than Solberg himself, the star of the album is the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. They infuse each song with rich sonic texture, eerie atmospherics, and sensational melodies. The orchestra’s musicians complement the rock instrumentation remarkably well. As a lover of symphonic rock (ELO is my favourite band) it’s a great joy to hear orchestral, rock, and metal sounds fused so symbiotically and effectively.
Opening song, “Stella Mortua,” is a splendid exemplar. In the opening seconds, ominous strings and tribal drums conjure up an image of legions of Orcs sweeping terrifyingly across the landscape to engage in battle. Strings float and an initially restrained, delicate vocal builds tension before the epic chorus with bursts of trademark Solberg falsetto. The song boasts doom metal riffs and gorgeous orchestral flourishes – the listener is transported to a world evoking Fantasia’s “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence. Cinematic, indeed!
“Medulla” has funky guitar riffage and is blessed by a truly catchy radio-friendly chorus. Possibly the most accessible song on the album, it’s a masterclass in hook-filled excitement with lyrics to match: “My marrow is strong / every shadow I outlast, every pain now in the past…it’s over” is genuinely hair-raising stuff.
The eight-minute title track makes fabulous use of the orchestra and at times reminds me of ELO’s peerless instrumental “Fire On High”. The song has a varied, fascinating arrangement, with many contrasting moods, and the orchestra is used brilliantly. It’s lyrically striking, too (“I believe in second chances / I’m not chained to what I’ve done”). A musical odyssey over eight minutes, it climaxes with dramatic brass and guitar riffage and an electrifying Solberg vocal.
“Liberatio” begins with swirling strings over heavy riffage and the song contains some of the album’s proggiest moments, cleverly combined with a stirring chorus, and again, I love the lyrics: “I see the tigers run at night / I go unbound / I see the shadows flood with light / am I profound?”. Wow! The chorus is repeated later in the song as are the musical themes from the early part of the song. It’s a major strength of the album that each song has diverse arrangements, yes, but always cohere with repeated musical motifs, delivering an enthralling and satisfying listening experience.
Solberg sounds at his most vulnerable on “Serenitas”. Charming orchestra arpeggios underpin his plaintive vocals in the first half of the song, after which there’s a superbly crafted slow-build and a powerful pay off. A highlight of this track is Pierre Danel’s beautiful guitar solo.
“Vita Fragilis” showcases Solberg’s amazing vocal range. I’m no expert but his voice must span several octaves, and the tunes here and throughout the album feature striking melodic intervals. The song features the orchestra most prominently and it’s a genuine ‘symphonic prog’ banger of a track.
The album’s longest song, “Grex” is in true epic territory at nearly twelve minutes long. Like most tracks here, there are multiple movements to enjoy. In the first half of the song, Danel contributes the best guitar solo on the album. His playing is marvellous and manages to fuse the sublime tone of Rothery with the dextrous virtuosity of Petrucci. It’s a standout achievement. The second half of the song is another slow build masterclass bookended by an eight-note earworm. I guarantee you’ll be humming this in idle moments! Soaring into a full band and orchestra spectacular outro, powerful bursts of Solberg’s vocals hammer home a widescreen experience. Almost simultaneously, he roars with a devastating fury and sings with a choirboy’s innocence – it’s quite exceptional. It’s my favourite song on the album.
Album closer “Anima Lucis” is a soothing musical warm-down, with Solberg at his most poignant amid sweeping adagio orchestra textures. The music makes me imagine a battle-scarred hero wandering alone into the sunset, thankful at having defeated the evil enemy but mourning the tragic loss of his comrades. There are many other possible interpretations! A major achievement of this album is the ability to transport the listener to another world. And isn’t that what we need at the moment?
I’ve been a lover of progressive music for 45 years. I feel like I’ve heard most things before and I crave music that is different, fresh and interesting. “Vox Occulta” absolutely delivers this in emphatic, imperious style. It’s as cinematic an album as any you could wish to hear, and the performances, by Einar Solberg, Pierre Danel, drummer Keli Guðjónsson and the omnipresent Norwegian Radio Orchestra, are nothing short of sensational.
In “Vox Occulta”, Einar Solberg cements his well-earned reputation as one of the most important talents in modern progressive music. He has a vision and he’s executed it in majestic fashion. And as terrific as the scope, instrumentation, sonic quality and performances undoubtedly are, ultimately it’s the sheer quality of the tunes that shine through. This is classical music for the modern era, and I shall be amazed if I hear anything better than this in 2026.
Released on April 24th, 2026 on InsideOutMusic
Order now here: https://einarsolberg-artist.lnk.to/VoxOcculta-Album
Tracklist:
1. Stella Mortua 05:28
2. Medulla 05:31
3. Vox Occulta 07:58
4. Liberatio 04:41
5. Serenitas 06:44
6. Vita Fragilis 05:27
7. Grex 11:49
8. Anima Lucis 07:05
Personnel:
Einar Solberg – vocals, piano, keyboards
Keli Guðjónsson – drums
Chris Baum – violin
Jed Lingat – bass
Pierre Danel – guitar
John Browne – guitar
Ben Levin – guitar
Norwegian Radio Orchestra
Co-produced by Einar Solberg and David Castillo
Mixed by Adam Noble
Mastered by Robin Schmidt
