On the summer solstice of 2008, Cairn was born in the first melodies of 'Solstiseraph'. Composing for a debut record continued apace through the winter, and though many of the songs and the band itself went unnamed until spring, a unifying lyrical narrative quickly emerged.

The intent of the name Cairn is twofold: first, to pay homage to the literal and spiritual Old World from which the word comes; second, to declare the band's ideological intent. Combining elements of European folk, progressive, and doom, Cairn is elegiac metal neither restrained nor defined by a single genre. 'Raise the Cairn', the project's debut EP, is a concept album that draws its core inspiration from the ocean and wild, the sagas, and natural apotheoses.

'Raise the Cairn' was released on June 21, 2011 - three years to the day after it was begun. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.