Reviewing albums can be a hit and miss affair. When a new package arrives you never know what to expect, good, bad or occasionally, downright ugly. On the flip side though is the odd gem that drops on to the mat which opens you up to a whole new avenue of musical excitement and so it turned out with Pathfinder.

This is the Polish power metallers second album, their first, 'Beyond The Space, Beyond The Time' was released back in 2010 to critical acclaim and having listened to this album extensively over the past couple of weeks the plaudits seem set to continue.

To give a taster of the Pathfinder sound, imagine Dragonforce meeting Freedom Call in the studio to record the soundtrack for Lord Of The Rings. A huge, majestic sound punctuated with operatic moments provided by singer Agata Lejba-Migdalska, overblown, OTT and utterly fantastic, this is how power metal should be done.

The band are led by founders Arkadiusz E Ruth and Karol Mania and are more than capable of carrying off the intricate playing and time changes throughout, which are mostly carried out at breakneck speed.

All tracks have a massive sound akin to a movie soundtrack and listening through the album, which offers up creativity as the fifth element required for all artistic development, you can picture a full-on dragon laden epic unfolding on the big screen.

It is hard to single out tracks as all are top class, but the cream of the crop are the title track 'Fifth Element', 'Chronokenesis' and 'March To The Darkest Horizons'. As I say though, skip to any track and you are guaranteed a gem.

This is a fantastic metal album that will hopefully see Pathfinder gain the larger audience they deserve .They have already completely won over my household!

*****

Review by David Wilson