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Necronomicon have been around since 1984 and released eight studio albums during their long career, many of them getting a lot of respect amongst Thrash Metal fans all around the world. The band's eighth studio album, titled Pathfinder... Between Heaven and Hell, won't disappoint the fans of the band either, if you happened to like their previous album, Invictus, where Necronomicon combined their striking and uncompromising Teutonic Thrash with straightforward Heavy Metal.

They use the same concept on this album, only this time I'd say they combine straightforward Heavy Metal with bits and pieces of Thrash, the main emphasis being on the type of Priest/Accept type of pure Heavy Metal. "Betrayed" is basically a pure Priest-flavored song, with attacking guitars and some great melodies and hooks, providing a good listening experience. The same applies to such songs as "Reborn" and "We Are the League", minus the vocals. The latter also features the spoken greetings of ex-bass player Lars "Lala" Honeck to vocalist and guitarist Freddy who both are the founding members of Necronomicon (also ex-guitarist/bassist Jürgen "Jogi" Weltin tells in the beginning of "Farewell to a Friend" why he also had to leave the band for good back in the day). And speaking of Freddy, he sounds as entertaining as always with his dry, snarling vocal style that is close to Destruction's Schmier. The beast of a song is absolutely "Monster" with its early Rainbow-tinged beginning (the Rising era in particular) and its sort of mystical feel.

There's nearly 70 minutes of stuff on Pathfinder..., and at times it's hard to concentrate on this record due to its length. With a more compact and optimal length of 40-45 minutes, the kickass factor would increase.