Review: Dimhav – Boreal Flame

Style: progressive metal, symphonic power metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Lost Horizon, Dream Theater, Wintersun, Anubis Gate
Review by: Matt
Country: Sweden
Release date: 8 November, 2019

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was originally published in the November 2019 edition of The Progressive Subway.]

Here it is: the review I’ve been mentally writing since November. In a rare case of musical with-it-ness, I listened to this on day one, and am still regularly listening to it today. It’s an album that reminds me power-prog can still surprise, and that I’m not just overly jaded when I repeat my reviewer mantra of “Ehhhhh” at yet another decent band. I mean… damn. This is so far beyond 99% of metal in ambition, sophistication, production value, and sheer heroic grandeur. Damn.

Arriving at my lofty opinion wasn’t instant; there were many twists and turns along the way. Let me present to you the Four Stages of Dimhav^TM:

1: “Why isn’t he singing more!?”
2: “Nevermind, these bridges are awesome.”
3: “Songs are awfully bloated though…”
4: “Nevermind, I was an idiot. Praise Dimhav.”

So, to get the giant white elephant out of the way, The Boreal Flame is blessed and cursed with the presence of Daniel Heiman. You may know him as the singer from Lost Horizon who never records, or the guy from the “WHOOOOOAAAA” video. Power metal fans will generally agree that he’s the best there’s ever been. His work here is awe-inspiring, and he’s right at home with this epic, fantasy-tinged music. The downside is, anything he appears on becomes about him to an unhealthy degree – many fans aren’t looking for a new band so much as a Daniel Heiman Delivery System^TM. His history warps your first impression of the album, which stubbornly refuses to ever go the obvious route. The first track is a ten minute instrumental, and I think it’s about thirteen before we get our first facemelter. However, these are not periods of downtime – in a career first, the instruments actually attempt to wrest the spotlight away, and surprisingly, they kind of succeed.

This is challenging music for both player and listener, with orchestra, synth leads, blast beats, HEAVY seven-string riffs and acoustics coexisting in lengthy songs. The opener is so furious it’s practically tech death, but the followup reveals an incredible mastery of dynamics. They build up to a John Williams-like orchestral fury from one humble tom part, and ease back into it with perfect smoothness for a haunting last verse. Also note how the chorus has a different chord progression the second time – it’s details like these that make these songs so fascinating. None of them are remotely simple, but through craftsmanship and/or force of will, the band managed to make it all work, and repeat listens reveal that every part is interesting or useful in some way. It helps that the core elements they’re coming back to are top-notch anthems worthy of the Lost Horizon legacy – check out The Flame Transcendent or From Southern Shores for some more traditional blazing power metal choruses. Aside from all the technical food for thought, this is one of the best albums at capturing the triumphant, mystical power metal sound in a way that you can take seriously. When Heiman vows to learn his human name, it feels like there’s a few hundred pages of fantasy novel behind it; these songs earn their grandiose lyrics.

This is going to be my first 10/10 for the blog. Is The Boreal Flame perfect? Well, I guess the insanely dense intro track starts to test the boundaries of good taste until the viking choir saves the day. Even so, this is an incredible feat of composition, and easily the best album of 2019. Every song has ideas exploding from every seam, yet there’s an uncommon maturity to their construction that other bands could learn from. The return of the world’s greatest metal vocalist is a nice bonus, and probably how most will stumble upon this band, but The Boreal Flame would be something special, even if Vince Neil sang on it. My congratulations to the Lindroth brothers, who composed and played all the instruments – this has got to be about as good a power-prog album as it’s possible to write.

Recommended tracks: The Flame Transcendent, Star and Crescent, Realms of a Vagrant King
You may also like: Tanagra, Lost in Thought, Qantice (spotify)
Final verdict: {}/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives page

Label: Independent

Dimhav is:
– Daniel Heiman (vocals)
– Staffan Lindroth (guitars, bass, keyboards)
– Olle Lindroth (drums, keyboards, orchestration