While in Brazil my CD purchases always tend to lack behind. In that case I go more to bandcamp. So herewith 4 very diverse albums I bought the last two months.
Dimhav - Ondine
Dimhav are from Sweden and they play porgmetal with power metal traces, just like we know from Sweden over the decades. The band consists of two brothers Olle and Staffan Lindroth. They take care of all instrumenst and as vocalist they called in Daniel Heiman. Now that was a smart move as vocals are top on this album. The songs themselves are also great, even if not all are stuck in my head yet. That is not strange as seven songs lasting together over an hour, you do the math. The power metal influences makes it sound more like 1996 than modern progmetal bands. I love this style of progmetal, but PPE seems to ignore it alltogether this year. Check Dimhav out, apparently this is album number two, so I might have to explore their past too.
A Forest of Stars - Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface
Now here is a challenging band: A Forest of AStars from Leeds. They play Black Metal, but of the avant-garde kind with folk influences. I discoverd them on their last album, which I ended not picking up in 2018. Now they are back with another long ride. six songs totalling 73 minutes, so do the math again. Their long songs mean they are not in a rush. The vocals are not singing, but more reciting. The music has an eary haunting atmosphere over it. An interesting album, which needs some time to consume. Especially those into a band like Dodheimsgard should check this out.
Psyclops - Bound to Burn: Melody of the Martyr
Is it an EP. or is it a full album? Who cares, this is my progmetal discovery of 2026 so far. It also is not an album, but a multimedia project where a comic book is added to the lyrics and I don't know what more. Now I don't care about comic books, but very good music makes me happy. We get modern progmetal here, with old-skool progmetal leanings at times. Both the clean and grunting vocals are pleasant to my ears. Musically there is enough power and speed in their prog to keep matters exciting. The 13 songs include three triple part anthems, so it is all a bit confusing on that front. I sneaky hope that PRR have to cancel their Progstorm appearance and Psyclops step in. I mean I am even interested in their 43 page comic book, that comes along with the album. If you like progmetal in any shape or form, you should listen to this album.
The Scalar Process - Agnomysticism
I think it has been proven that if you have to fight yourself through days speaking hte horrible French language, you seek solace in technical death metal. I can't explain otherwise why so many great tech-death bands are from France and the French speaking part of Canada. The Scalar Process released their second album, but were new to me. I actually first bought their sweatpants, as my old Pagan's Mind one was worn out. This was when it was still cold around February. The album was released 29 May only and I bought it on bandcamp too. Their tech-death has more accessible parts woven in and should appeal to those into progmetal not afraid of grunts too. I now picked up my sweatpants with my neighbours and I can proudly wear them over winter, as The Scalar Process deliver for when I need to hear my metal fast, furious and technical.
