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These news make me awfully sad...
I just heard of this from a friend of mine and apparently its true...I am aware that the band has been through various line-up changes in the past and always come out alright (if not better) but these two had become such a big part of the Dimmu Borgir sound...What are your thoughts and opinions on this?

Well, I think it's a good moment for stopping to listen to Dimmu...

As a Black Metal band they were really average (not talking about musicianship, just about composition), and these two gave the distinctive Melodic/Symphonic elements: the almost-clean vocals of Vortex and the atmospheric orchestration of Mustis.

Really sad...if we're lucky (and they're intelligent) they'll disband and create new bands with different perspectives, but..."money makes the world go round"...and it might be tough to get rid of a consolidated band's name.

P.S. RateYourMusic.com confirms this since the profile update has been approved: "Mustis [Øyvind Johan Mustaparta] (keyboards, 1998-2009)" and "ICS Vortex [Simen Hestnæs] (bass, vocals, 2000-09)".

I havent really lost hope in them yet, as they have survived line-up changes before.
I'll wait for the next album 'til I judge them.

Its good to see that Simen is no longer wasting his time with Dimmundane Borgir. He was the only gem and the only reason why some tracks have been listenable since 2001. I would love to see him doing some sort of Code-like project actual black metal (not Symphonic Extreme/Extreme Goth) with his cleans (at least like Code's debut). His clean vox are some of the best out there.