They subsequently gained prominence as the live backing band of Ihsahn (who is Solberg's brother-in-law), who, in turn, contributed on several Leprous records as guest singer or producer.

After two albums which followed the same musical direction, Coal (2013) and The Congregation (2015), Leprous took a more rock-oriented and less metal approach with Malina (2017), their first record not to feature harsh vocals.

[4] Leprous further experimented on 2019's Pitfalls, which saw the band mixing art rock, pop and progressive influences into their established sound.

[4] The band's roster solidified by the time they recorded their debut album, Tall Poppy Syndrome in August 2008.

[12] The band's debut for Inside Out Records, Bilateral, was released on 22 August 2011 in Europe and a day later in North America[13][14] and featured artwork by American surrealist Jeff Jordan and Spanish designer Ritxi Ostariz.

[23] The album, titled Pitfalls, was officially announced on 26 August 2019, along with the designated release date of 25 October 2019, as well as the artwork and tracklist.

[24] Leprous continued to regularly perform live throughout 2020 and 2021, with the events streamed online from their home town of Notodden.

[33][34] In his formative years, the frontman took singing and piano lessons and he used to notate Leprous songs but later stopped doing so after feeling that their compositions written intuitively were better.

Contrary to the prevalent uses in modern progressive metal and djent, Tor Oddmund Suhrke's playing style includes the use of complex chords in a variety of alternate guitar tunings (often necessitated by the fact the chord progressions are originally written by Einar Solberg on keyboard).

Suhrke cited the Mars Volta's Omar Rodríguez-López, Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt, Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson, and the Dillinger Escape Plan's Ben Weinman as his four biggest guitar influences.