Review: –

This Necronomicon isn’t the Canadian death metal band, but the German ‘thrash’ band, and it’s pretty awkward to see them change label again (their eighth label in eight albums) and end-up with Trollzorn, who are usually more folk metal than speed metal. Unlike the short, sharp, shock of thrash ‘Pathfinder…’ is an over-an-hour long concept album with a few tracks over seven minutes, and while there is definitely a thrash approach, ‘Pathfinder…’ is sugar-coated and very often closer to traditional (and predictable) German heavy metal than to say… Kreator or Destruction. However, Necronomicon frontman Freddy sounds pretty close to a nasal Schmier trying to get more melodic, and while that works well on the album, it’s certainly not the easiest kind of voice to cope with for very long. No massive flaws, but this album is at its best when the band gives us some oomph (‘Reborn’…), and the spoken word sections from their original members – Lala and Jogi – add a nice touch in showing the band has one foot in their future and the other in their past. It just feels like ‘Pathfinder…’ is in between two worlds; a tad too soft, it would have been a lot better if it had stuck to the pure thrashing fury.