Einar Solberg (17,992 views)

[kuyashii]

Einar Solberg
Associated Acts: Leprous (2001-currently)
Vocal Range: G2-C6

High Notes

C6 ("Aeolus Shadow")
B5 ("Beauty of Death", "Eye of the Storm", "Passing")
A5 ("Entropy", "Eye of the Storm")
G5 ("Beauty of Death", "Close Your Heart", "Foe", "Passing", "Silent Waters")
F♯5 ("Acquired Taste", "Chronic", "Dewy Fields", "The Flood", "Painful Detour")
F5 ("Alleviate", "Below", "Distant Bells", "Forced Entry", "Not Even a Name", "Passing", "The Price", "Restless", "Rewind", "Salt", "Slave", "Stuck", "Thorn", "Within My Fence")
E5 ("Arrival", "At the Bottom", "Beauty of Death", "By My Throne", "Bonneville", "Collapse", "Cryptogenic Desires", "Disclosure", "Eye of the Storm", "Foe", "The Flood", "Forced Entry", "Golden Prayers", "Malina", "Mb. Indiferentia", "Phantom Pain", "Pixel", "Slave", "Stuck", "Third Law", "The Valley", "Waste of Air", "White")
E♭5 ("At the Bottom", "Below", "Bilateral", "Captive", "Coal", "Chronic", "Dewy Fields, "Down", "Foe", "Foreigner", "Golden Prayers", "Lower", "Mirage", "Mediocrity Wins", "Not Even a Name", "The Price", "Triumphant", "Waste of Air", "The Weight of Disaster")
D5 ("Acquired Taste", "Aeolus Shadow", "Black Stains", "Bonneville", "Bury", "By My Throne", "Coal", "Celestial Violence", "Close Your Heart", "Cryptogenic Desires", "Dare You", "Disclosure", "Echo", "Entropy", "Eye of the Storm", "Fate", "Forced Entry", "From the Flame", "He Will Kill Again", "Illuminate", "Leashes", "Malina", "Foe", "Phantom Pain", "Red", "Rewind", "Restless", "Root", "Salt", "The Sky is Red", "Silent Waters", "The Cloak", "The Great Beast", "The Valley", "The Weight of Disaster", "Third Law", "Thorn", "Triumphant")
C♯5 ("At the Bottom", "Bilateral", "Black Stains", "Captive", "Forced Entry", "Golden Prayers", "Mirage", "Moon", "Not Even a Name", "Painful Detour", "Within My Fence", "White")
C5 ("Acquired Taste", "Aeolus Shadow", "Below", "Bonneville", "Bury", "By My Throne", "Celestial Violence", "Close Your Heart", "Distant Bells", "Down", "Echo", "Eye of the Storm", "Foe", "Foreigner", "He Will Kill Again", "Illuminate", "Indecisive", "Leashes", "Lower", "Malina", "Mb. Indiferentia", "Mediocrity Wins", "Mirage", "Painful Detour", "Passing", "Phantom Pain", "Pixel", "The Price", "Red", "Restless", "Root", "Slave", "Stuck", "Thorn", "The Valley", "Waste of Air")
B4 ("Arrival", "Bilateral", "Captive", "Coma", "Contaminate Me", "Dewy Fields", "Disclosure", "Echo", "Everyone is Everywhere", "The Flood", "From the Flame", "Illuminate", "Indecisive", "Losing Hope", ""Mb. Indiferentia", "Observe the Train", "Painful Detour", "Passing", "Root", "The Sky is Red", "Stuck", "Tall Poppy Syndrome", "White")
B♭4 ("Angel" Live at Bucharest 2018, "Below", "Celestial Violence", "Chronic", "Disassembled", "Distant Bells", "Fate", "Foreigner", "Losing Hope", ""Malina", "Moon", "Restless", "Silent Waters", "The Sky is Red", "Within My Fence")
A4 ("Acquired Taste", "Alleviate", "Arrival", "By My Throne", "Coal", "Collapse", "Contaminate Me", "Everyone is Everywhere", "Foe", "Forced Entry", "Illuminate", "Losing Hope", "Mb. Indiferentia", "Observe the Train", "Pixel", "Phantom Pain", "Root", "Slave", "Third Law", "Triumphant", "Waste of Air", "White")

Low Notes

E3 ("At the Bottom", "Acquired Taste", "Bonneville", "By My Throne", "Collapse", "Echo", "Eye of the Storm", "Fate", "Foe", "Observe the Train", "Passing", "Phantom Pain", "Pixel", "Stuck", "The Valley")
E♭3 ("At the Bottom", "Coma", "Distant Bells", "Down", "Foe", "Foreigner", "Golden Prayers", "Mirage")
D3 ("Alleviate", "Celestial Violence", "The Great Beast", "Illuminate", "Leashes", "Observe the Train", "Phantom Pain", "Root", "Salt", "White")
C♯3 ("Acquired Taste", "Captive", "Observe the Train")
C3 ("Disassembled", "Down", "Echo")
B2 ("Arrival", "Close Your Heart", "The Flood", "From the Flame", "The Valley")
B♭2 ("Below", "Moon", "Silent Waters", "Within My Fence")
A2 ("Cryptogenic Desires")
G♯2("At the Bottom", "Lower")
G2 ("Down", "Mediocrity Wins")

Blue marks clear falsetto notes.
Green marks heavily distorted/harsh notes.
Underlines mark notes that are obscured in the song mix.
Italics mark non-melodic notes.
Boldface marks notes that are considered to be particularly notable examples of this person's vocal capabilities (all examples hyperlinked).

SPOILER: Click to show

{Questionable Notes}
B♭5 ("Silent Waters" Live at Unknown Venue 2003⁵)
F♯5 ("Rewind"⁵)
F5 ("The Architect"⁵)

C3 ("Salt"¹)
A2 ("Celestial Violence"¹)
G2 ("Eye of the Storm"³)

[1] marks yelps and short trills in high range or anacrusis and short dips in low range.
[2] marks notes of questionable identity that cannot be confirmed to be the singer in question.
[3] marks non-melodic notes that don't have a significant enough pitch to warrant inclusion.
[4] marks notes that possess uncertain pitch or have been pitch-shifted.
[5] marks notes that do not fit the previous criteria but are not of a substantial enough quality to warrant counting towards the singer's range.

The screams from "Rewind" and "The Architect" (a collaboration between Einar and Haken released on the 2016 album Affinity) are ladden with lots of overtones (You can hear Einar recording the vocals from Rewind here). The "Silent Waters" note (which is hyperlinked) is very weird, because while it appears to be cracked into, there's actual vibrato applied to it, so I decided to leave it here due to its ambiguity.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Discography and Range by Release}Leprous – Silent Waters (Demo) (2004) (E3-B5)
Leprous – Aeolia (2006) (B♭2-C6)
Leprous – Tall Poppy Syndrome (2009) (D3-B5)
Leprous – Bilateral (2011) (G2-F♯5)
Leprous – Coal (2013) (B2-G5)
Leprous – The Congregation (2015) (G2-F♯5)
Leprous – Malina (2017) (B2-F5)
Leprous - Pitfalls (2019) (G♯2-F5)

Guest Appearances:
Ihsahn – "Arrival" (Eremita, 2012)
Ihsahn – "Disassembled", "Celestial Violence" (arktis., 2016)
The Wretched End - "Dewy Fields" (In These Woods, From These Mountains, 2016)
Thomas Giles – "Everyone is Everywhere" (Don't Touch the Outside, 2018)
Voyager - "Entropy" (Colours in the Sun, 2019)

Einar Solberg is the incredible vocalist of the norwegian prog metal/rock/pop band Leprous. Einar is a very imposing-sounding singer, his "natural" mid-range tone has a very robust, handsome tone, and while he doesn't explore his lower range much, he usually sings in a very dramatic style of higher singing which is audibly influenced by Devin Townsend, who also is a noticeable influence on Einar's sensual, "big-sounding" falsetto and a very strange "distorted head voice" sound which he used quite frequently up until Leprous 2013 album Coal (a technique Einar later abandomned due to the strain it was causing on his voice). While after the aforementioned album he started doing less and less screaming, he started using an overtoney fry scream style of harsh vocals which sound remarkably similar to Ihsahn (who frequently collaborates with Einar and Leprous).

It's worth of noticing that Einar started out demonstrating such an impressive control over his voice very early on his career, as at the age of 18/19 (time of release of first Leprous demo, The Silent Waters) he was already singing some very difficult material – worth adding that Leprous early recordings had some blistering compressed falsetto up to the sixth octave, a style he didn't do later on his career). Overall, Einar is a pretty versatile vocalist with some crazy tonal control, as he can sound pretty baritonish in one second, almost feminine on the next, and singing crazily distorted on the third. He also makes use of some very creative wordless singing style and creates very cool harmonies layering his voice.

Previous version of the thread by Aldebaran.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Vocal Range Video}

If you have any questions concerning the whereabouts of a note or has notes I happened to miss, feel free to say anything!

[kuyashii]

While there's three songs released by Leprous from the upcoming album already (and all have awesome vocals regardless of the quality of the compositions), I'm planning to go through all of them collectively once the album is out. Meanwhile, there's this song here from a band called Voyager which Einar guested in. There are D5s and C5s on every chorus and backing vocal A5s on 2:45. I'm not exactly sure on some of the backing vocals being his or the Voyager's dude, but guessing he sang A5s I don't think there's anything higher than that (which is the highest note he sang in quite a while).

SPOILER: Click to show

{Warning: Features lots of AAAAAAAAA}

BTW does anyone has any suggestion for bolds? I think the highest note from Alliviate might warrant a bold when I add them to the thread.

[Gatr]

Yeah, the F5s in Alleviate were pretty solid imo. Maybe the G♯2 from At the Bottom as well.

[kuyashii]

Took me ages but I finally added the notes from Pitfalls. While I admit it's not my favorite Leprous album, the vocal performances are as great as ever. Einar seems to be using more of falsetto and head voice to fit the "poppier" sound of the album but there are some ridiculously strong belting moments all over the album. I noticed there is some pitch-correcting here and there which is something I haven't heard in their previous album but maybe it's just a stylistic thing to fit with the "ultraproduced pop" thing that the album aims for. Quite a few notes can be bolded from there IMO (The F5s from "Alliviate" and "Distant Bells", the E5s from "At the Bottom" and the C5 from "Foreigner). I can link them later so you guys can chime in

[Rodney Blazershorts]

I thought the same thing after hearing Distant Bells. The C#5 in Moon and the D5s in Third Law need bold as well.

[kuyashii]

Someone brought this to my attention on a YT comment on that range video I made I still can't find the will to remake lol. I was aware that he played live with both Emperor and Ihsahn as a soloist, but never really checked anything from that and I'm not particularly familiar with Emperor's music tbh.

There's a high note at 0:19 that might be him (B5 if the studio version is to go by), but the camera doesn't capture him during that moment. You can see what it can potentially be him distancing his head from the microphone as the note ends. It kinda sounds like him, but it could potentially be just a sample from the studio version or something. He does some backing vocal cleans around 3:05 as well.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Emperor - Curse You All Men (Live Wacken 2006)}

[mrchonghead]

New Leprous album (Aphelion) out!

[kuyashii]

I'm aware of it! I haven't been really active lately due to a bunch of things (college, mental health, family issues) but I'll update this as soon as it's possible for me.

Vocally, it's on the same vein Einar has been going through since the last few albums. There's a lot of delicate and more effeminate moments coupled with more explosive, intense ones (even some Ihsahn-like screams on "Nighttime Disguise"!) and the "pop" influence on his vocals has been increasingly more explicit with loads and loads of elaborated (and at times exaggerated) melismas. I noticed his diction becomes a tad slurred at times (he always had a rather strong accent anyways) and he sounds a tad thinner on the highest notes but nothing that compromises the strenght of his vocal performance. "Nighttime Disguise" itself spans a very strong A2-G#5 range. There might be something lower somewhere but as far as high notes go, this one has the highest I think?

I'm still rather torn on what I think of the album. There are some great moments (I loved "Silhouette" and "Nighttime Disguise", the latter being the best song of the album and one of the best vocal performances Einar has done in all of his career) but overall their music is becoming more and more interchangeable with each album and they are slowly shedding away all the elements that made their music unique in the first place.

[mrchonghead]

Don't push yourself for note watching; your mental health and other priorities are first

The album is pretty great imo; there were some songs on there which were written during the Pitfalls sessions (it definitely explains some of the sameness there), but songs like Nighttime Disguise are definitely career defining vocally imo. There's also a lot of backing vocals on the album which go up to at least G5, as well as even a B♭5 during Running Low; I'd say this overall is his best album vocally.