Album Release Discussion: Dimhav - Ondine
I don't know how many people here heard Dimhav's debut, The Boreal Flame, back in 2019, but it was a very fantastic piece of prog-power! With Daniel Heiman on vocals, it sounded like a mix of Lost Horizon and Wintersun (it had the whole wintery boreal forest atmosphere going on with the keyboards/orchestration) or Symphony X. It had really cool virtuosic proggy solos on top of a pretty catchy and accessible power metal base.
Seven years later, the band finally released their sophomore album last night, and it's massively more progressive than their first. I've only given it one listen so far, but there didn't seem to really be any verses/choruses or too many catchy vocal hooks. The album however has really intersting atmospheric solos throughout every song, and incredibly ethereal and atmospheric orchestration throughout, and in general quite interesting song structures and vocal line choices.
Dimhav has definitely seen a lot more traction in the power metal fandom than prog, but with this album being so much more densely prog than their last, and stripping away the majority of the power metal influences, I'm curious to see what true progheads feel about it (I've been decently getting into prog metal these past few years, but I don't think I'm fully there yet lol). This album was by far my most anticipated album of the year, and I'd very much appreciate if anyone gave it a listen and their thoughts—It's up on their Bandcamp, Spotify, and Youtube.