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The Japanese quartet started working on Pathfinder in late 2010, but due to the great earthquake and tsunami in 2011 working on the album was delayed. In summer 2012 they entered the studio and now the album sees the light of day.
Slowly they kick off with Ashes & Yarrow, the music of Early Cross is atmospheric and reminds me of The Man-Eating Tree... With singer Natasha Vaichuk handling the vocals the songs get a dash of The Gathering, early days of Anneke van Giersbergen I speak of. Hymn To The Fallen is a soft atmospheric rock tune where Natasha Vaichuk has a lot space for her vocals, but personally I would prefer, if the vocals are a bit more up front... After an interlude they head into Cairn, another slow tune which invites you to forget the world around you... Let the music enchant you and take you into reverie. With The Pilgrimage they present a long track with more than 14 minutes running time - and they invited some friends Mutsumi Tanamura did the spoken words and Shigetsugu Hagiya gives guitarist Hiroaki Kato a helping hand. The closer The Fog reminds me a bit of Lacuna Coil in their early days... Again I would wish that the vocals are more up front, but that's something which they can fix easily next time, so it's no big deal.
Their music can be described as cinematic rock / metal which is spiced up with folk and prog sounds.
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