pathfinder beyond the space, beyond the time

Released: 02 May 2011 Label: Sonic Attack

Beyond the Space, Beyond the Time, is Pathfinder's first full length release, and as they have been knocking around since 2006, I was honestly expecting another cheese-fest of tedious 80's European power rock, overloaded with hair metal riffs, and stupid lyrics about going "down on my knees on the streets, in the neon light of the night."

But, thankfully I couldn't have been more wrong. Well, except about the cheese which is present and correct in abundance - as it should be - in this genre!

This is actually symphonic power metal at its finest and for the incredible breadth of compositional scope alone it even eclipses the likes of DragonForce, who in comparison sound like one-trick ponies!

It is a huge album, in length clocking in just over 70 minutes and scope, being ridiculously fast and full of frantic melodic soloing and pedal tone riffing.

The musicianship is simply outstanding, if not entirely original, throughout and I'm even prepared to be lenient on vocalist Simon Kostro for his inadvertently comic pronunciation, as while his heavily accented voice mangles vowels with abandon; you have to also give him credit for his falsetto screaming that makes Justin Hawkins sound like a baritone!

The opener, Deep Into That Darkness Peering, is a masterful symphonic instrumental bristling with bombast, as it sweeps across vast musical vistas, like an epic motion picture score, and serves as a superb overture to the album. The orchestration and arrangement floored me, it was simply superb.

The undoubtedly manic riffage of The Whisper of Ancient Rocks failed to match the musical articulacy of the superb opener though, and although the vocals get a bit lost in the staccato blast of the music, the chorus is as at least a change of pace.

The classical influences don't end after the first instrumental either, as Beethoven is suitably metalled up during Vita Reduct and the blistering Pathway to the Moon.

The first video from the album is for the track Lord of Wolves and it's a hoot. The song itself is one of the many highlights of the album, full of dazzling sweep lead breaks, double tapped bass solos, mirrored keyboard and guitar runs, harpsichord outbursts, female vocal harmonies, and if the video is anything to go by, an epic tale of moonlit fantasy castles and knights in armour defeating evil. It's hard not to warm to something both so musically adventurous and so comically cheesy.

The obligatory power ballad is pretty impressive duet, Undiscovered Dreams, full of huge orchestral flourishes and ringing chord changes.

The title track provides the full-on ten minute epic hit of symphonic power cheese speed metal that their target audience will wet themselves for, and the album closes with another superbly arranged symphonic instrumental entitled What if...

The only real problem with this release, apart from the cheesiness of the entire style and cliched imagery that only really appeals to fifteen year old virgins of course, is the production. When the orchestration or piano, superbly arranged as they are by Salvomir Belak, drops out of the equation, the sound of the band loses much of its dynamic range, and as the guitars and drums sound quite tinny, they are almost like MIDI instruments. (Although this may be down to just the pre-release press CD!)

The vocals too, are quite thin and reedy in the mix, but if they get a bigger recording budget for future releases, giving true sonic power to the speed and sweep of their symphonic metal attack, then they could certainly be a band to keep an eye on!

Flaws aside, this is a hugely impressive debut and first release on the Sonic Attack label by former Noise Records Mastermind Karl Walterbach. They are currently touring, and have even taken the impressive Dutch soprano Dianne van Giersbergen out with them to sing the female vocal parts. DragonForce had better watch their backs, as there's some new ROFL metal in town and they mean business!

by Steven Hargraves