Cairn – Raise the Cairn (2011)

Hailing from the USA, today we have a one-man band named Cairn and their debut album “Raise the Cairn”. With a heavy vibe of Primordial meets Forest of Shadows, this short but sweet EP will be enough to rattle your cage and make you want more. Featuring five tracks and around 23 minutes of music, this solo self-exploratory release is one of the most interesting and less vanilla sounding we have received in 2011.

Opening with an acoustic section, “Magnapinna Rex, Pt I: Solstiseraph” enshrouds the listener in a mysterious cloud of powerful riffing and nice calm sections. Like we mentioned before, this particular song reminded us of Primordial instantly with this nice folk-ish and aggressive approach to music. The shrieks are very powerful and nicely accompany the guitar work. The bass guitar line is pretty active and melodic, somewhat contrasting with the rest and making it more evident. The song is nicely followed by the acoustic track “Far Passage”.

With another intriguing opening section, Magnapinna Rex, Pt II: Equinautical” delivers more Primordial worship with some nice mellow guitar elements. The song is somewhat similar to Pt I, but with a bit more melody thrown into the mix. There are some Doom-ish elements here and there, and they are made more evident on the last track. But before the last song, we have yet another acoustic interlude titled “Further, None”.

Opening with crushing riffs, “Crush Depth” is a very different from the first two songs since it has a more straightforward Death/Doom sound. This reminds us a lot of Forest of Shadows and similar bands. The shrieks are put in the background and are mostly overtaken by some deep growls. This song is a bit contrasting to the rest, but it shows a different face that Cairn can take. While we are huge fans of the genre, and would love to have the band continue in this manner, a combination of both styles would be very interesting.

For a self-released record of one of The Living Fields member, this is a very interesting album that shows the musical potential of Samu Rahn. There is still some works to be done in order to have Cairn carve its own unique and consistent sound, but as a small sampler “Raise the Cairn” has enough potential. We recommend this release if you liked the last Living Fields album and are looking for something in a similar vein but in a smaller scale.

Release: June 21st, 2011

Country: USA