Oniromantic – The White Disease (2012)

All the way from Italy, today we have Oniromantic and their very unique (and catchy) mixture of Progressive with Gothic Metal. Reminding us a bit to bands like Ommatidia and even Eternal Tears of Sorrow, this very unique band has a deep melancholic vibe in their music that makes its very intoxicating and quite fresh. Featuring eight delightful tracks, this is one hell of a release for a surprisingly unsigned band.

The band start heavy with “Saturn Hellucination” delivering powerful riffs and a dreamy vibe that is greatly enhance by the powerful clean vocals of Mauro Mazzara. The melodic passage in this track is pretty well crafted and nicely indicates what is to come in the later songs. In “High Resolution God” we got quite engaged by the playful progression of the song and the atmospheric keyboard usage. The female vocals on “Crimson” are quite heavenly and very well used.

Mellowing out by the time we hit “Windowpane”, this band uses their charismatic singer perfectly with their very simple (yet effective) atmospheric passages in this track. After the brief “The White Distance”, the band is back with another hard-hitting epic track titled “Thin Ice”. Again, we have to love the brilliant shifts that change a song from powerful and aggressive to an all-out ethereal melodic passage (around the 1:15 mark) and back keeps the track going back and forth between sections like this.

Our favorite track has to be the epic “The Dark Side of Light” and it’s very playful and atmospheric nature. This song builds up majestically with powerful guitar work and soaring vocals. Closing with the dramatic “Banished from Heaven”, the vocals make half the work in setting a killer vibe, but also the chorus sections give that extra catchiness and epicness level to the song. Indeed, this track is one hell of a closer for such a vibrant release.

If you like lush atmospheric elements surrounded by powerful and melodic guitar sections and solid vocal melodies, this is one release you don’t want to miss. Oniromantic has a very original and well-constructed sound, and we will be surprised if they don’t get picked up by a label very soon, so keep an eye out for them and be sure to get a copy of “The White Disease”.

Release: August 28th, 2012

Genre: Progressive/Gothic Metal

Country: Italy