"Intense. But amazing!" Leprous have covered a-ha's Take On Me. And it's brilliant!

Norwegian pop trio a-ha and Norwegian prog band Leprous — (Image credit: Aha: Julian Brown/Mirrorpix/Getty Images - Leprous Press/Grzegorz Golebiowski)

Norwegian prog metallers Leprous have covered a-ha's massive 1985 hit, Take On Me, and it's fantastic!

The band took part in the musician tutorial website Musora's Covers On The Spot challenge, in which they get musicians and bands to cover a well-known song that often has some link with the band, but which they don't know until they're in the studio with presenter and Musora content director Ron Jackson.

In this case, both are Norwegian artists, but given Leprous's fine ear for a melody and Einar Solberg's striking vocal range, which you'll discover, is not that far away from a-ha singer Morten Harket.

As the song they have to cover is revealed to the band, drummer Bard Kolstad says "Some of these guys were the neighbours of my father.", while Solber quips, "We're going to slow this down like fuck! You've been kind to me, I already did a cover of Manhattan Skyline." [Solberg sang the a-ha song on Ihsahn's 2020 Pharos EP].

"I loved it. It was intense, but amazing," states Solberg once the band have performed their cover version. "It's not really that far away from us anyway..."

Leprous played at ArcTanGent festival last night. The band will be touring through Europe throughout October and November.

Norwegian Prog/Metal Band LEPROUS Covers "Take On Me" On The Spot - YouTube

Watch On

Artists

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.