MELD

Pinnacle is a heavy prog band from USA with two albums released so far. This trio manage to capture my attention by their second album from 2006 named Meld. Energic and noodly heavy prog album with some great instrumental sections, and aswell the voice is pretty ok. Pinnacle have their own sound I think even they are in same category with Tiles, Rush or Variant, almost same aproach in music with twisted tempo changes, some fine guita works and quite intresting bass lines, very busy instrument on this album. I also like a lot the drums, Greg Jones is very sure of his instrument creating some great chops. Even the album is long over an hour it doesn't contain any mediocre or boring moments, contrary has plenty of intresting arrangements well performed. The forte pieces are definetly the opening track Information Overload - 10 min of pure bliss, engaging moments , powerful musicianship. Another worthy piece is the instrumental Built For Speed another great tune that shown how great is the guitar parts. Some sporadicaly and well integrated in the overall sound are the keybords, who has a second role here after the guitar but some nice passages are on The Deepest Sea. The album ends with an epic of nearly 19 min of good playing intresting ideas and top notch production. Talking about production the album was mastered, mixed and produced by Shadow Gallery bass player Carl Cadden James with the help from the band. Really nice album that desearves from me 3-3.5 stars.

When I heard for the first time this album I thought " How this album passed by me completely unnoticed during almost ten years ? After this I read (with some surprise) in P A Discography section of the band , which this album shows the lowest quotation between their three releases until now ( I can't wait to hear the others !!! ) ..."In PINNACLE "Meld" the second album from this North-American band, released in 2006 at first audition my heart "smile" like if I have meet again dear old friends. I can say is, in this album I feel many influences mainly from the masters of 70's , from heavy-prog like, RUSH , LED ZEPPELIN , some "hints" of jazz -rock of JEFF BECK and Symphonic Prog like YES, KANSAS , etc... Besides this the music is actual because add to this "old" influences , the sound of another generation of progressive rock music in the "vein" of TILES, TRIUMPH and the pop new wave from THE POLICE. This" tapestry" of influences, don't sound like a cheap copy or a simply recall of any themes from the mentioned bands ! The track 1 "Information Overload" is cearly influenced by RUSH and their exceptional form to combine broken beats, bass/guitars frenetic duos and counterpoints. The track 2 "Alkways Somewhere Else" shows a LED ZEPPELIN'S slightly " shape, with remarkable bass guitar soft solo. The track 3 "Love In Our Hands" is a "sweet" ballad , full of filigrees: a exceptional acoustic guitar melody, some tuned percussions and a clear homage to YES (a bass melody starting 4 min 14 sec) with the first verses of "And You And I" ! The track 5 "Built For Speed" reminds JEFF BECK'S composition style , with RUSH's "nervous" bass/ guitar arrangements. The track 6 "The Deepest Sea" shows a overture and main theme with KANSAS's "moods" mixed whit SPOCK'S BEARD something of RUSH. The last track "The Life In A Year " receives a perfect title, due the recolection of almost all influences of the band . My rate is 5 Stars !!!!