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Pathfinder: Beyond the Space Beyond the Time
Pathfinder Beyond the Space Beyond the Time new music review

Pathfinder: Beyond the Space ...

Epic/Heavy/Power Metal
4.5/5.0

Independent/Self-promotion
www.myspace.com/pathfinderband
www.pathfinderband.com
Review: Craig Hartranft,  08.16.2010

One listen to Pathfinder's debut Beyond the Space, Beyond the Time (BTSBTT) and you will think you should be listening to a band from 1900 kilometers to the southwest rather than Poland. With their immense, symphonic, and epic power metal, Pathfinder has nothing on, say, Rhapsody of Fire, and other Italian bands which put the genre on the map. Couple their sound with contributions from some like-minded guest artists including Roberto Tiranti (Labyrinth), Bob Katsionis (Firewind), and Matias Kupiainen (Stratovarius) plus an opera singer and a choir, and you have a work of mammoth proportions. This from the country that gave us Vader, Behemoth, and a host of other fledging extreme metal bands. And damn, if they don't pull it off.

While the palette may be familiar the canvas is as grand as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Working over lush arrangements of symphony and choir, Pathfinder offers brisk movements filled with layers of guitars, synthesizers, and blistering drums. BTSBTT powers along with a pace and wall of sound that is both bombardment and breathtaking. The Demon Awakens, The Whisper of Ancient Rocks, and Lord of the Wolves are mere examples of this bombastic aural assault.

Years past, this genre was often called 'film score' metal, and with good reason. Often founded upon a fantastical tale of demons, wizards, and heroes, these bands revealed these stories with magical and sweeping musical arrangements. Pathfinder is doing no less, and probably doing it as good or if not better than their forebears or peers. By example, the metal opera sound of Undiscovered Dreams is pure grandeur and brilliance, a sterling picture of the genre.

But this epic heavy metal motif flows throughout this work, and even styles the cover of Mike Oldfield's 1983 hit Moonlight Shadow. You probably will not recognize the original over pure exaggeration of the new. It is way over the top. Beyond the obvious, and sometimes pompous, grandeur here, Beyond the Space, Beyond the Time easily defines epic heavy metal for a new generation and, quite possibly, could be the standard by which others are judged in the future. Recommended.




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In Short

Beyond the obvious, and sometimes pompous, grandeur here, Beyond the Space, Beyond the Time easily defines epic heavy metal for a new generation and, quite possibly, could be the standard by which others are judged in the future. Recommended.

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