After 'Kansas' who have just released a new album 'The Absence Of Presence' the same day, it's the turn of the formation 'Pinnacle Point' (created a few years by American keyboardist and singer 'Jerome Mazza' who also released a solo album 'Outlaw Son' in 2018 and Danish guitarist 'Torben Enevoldsen'), to release their second album 'Symphony of Mind', their first opus 'Winds of Change' being released in 2017. I'm talking about 'Kansas' because, it is quite obvious, the influences of the Americans are felt in most of the titles, this being due, on the one hand to the singing of 'Jerome Mazza' which is close to the singing of 'Steve Walsh' (and moreover Jerome was invited to sing with the American on his album solo 'Black Butterfly' ) but also due also by violin accompaniments of 'Valeria Pozharitskaya'.
It is first of all a well-supplied album that ‘Pinnacle Point’ offers us, since we have at our disposal 1 hour and 6 minutes of listening in 12 compositions ranging between 3 to 7 minutes. The instrumental 'Ascent to the Point' launches the album which takes us back to the progressive of the 70s with characteristic keyboard tones and the violin which gives that first impression of being in the known register of 'Kansas' (isn't it a title with a nod to the' Point of Know Return'?), but, it is the singing of' Jerome Mazza 'which further accentuates this resemblance, the melodic lines and the symphonic atmosphere being particularly close also to the Americans one, the progressive side being slightly more pushed, the instrumental passages being a little more developed, then, the leading 'Weight of the World' is much closer to hard rock by keeping this vintage side with eighties choirs. 'Hero' returns to melodic symphonic rock with violin re-appearing of 'Valeria Pozharitskaya' and with 'Jerome Mazza' vocals so close to 'Steve Walsh', then, 'Never Surrender' is more in a classic AOR register close to 'Toto' or 'Asia' and 'In the Wake of Hope' is a kind of mix between beautiful instrumental parts à la 'Kansas' and sung parts of a melodic rock from the 70s close to 'Foreigner'. The second part of the album offers us the beautiful melody of 'Shadows of Peace' in a refined symphonic atmosphere which makes it for me one of the titles closest to 'Kansas' of the 70s, the ballad 'Beyond' which takes us in a quiet and serene journey, filled with emotion, then 'Nothing at All' continues in this melancholy register in the manner of the magnificent 'Nobody's Home' from the album 'Point of Know Return' of 1977 and 'Prodigal' is a little more contrasted between energy, brought by a catchier rhythm in certain places and melancholy, thanks to the accompaniment of the violin, tending towards an imaginative progressive all the more as the melodic lines are more contemporary. And it is with first of all the eponymous title of the album, a magnificent symphonic fresco à la 'Kansas' and then, 'Dangerous', remarkable progressive title alternating softness and energy that the album ends.
In summary, this latest album from 'Pinnacle Point' is in every way remarkable and takes us back to sophisticated and imaginative '70s symphonic and progressive rock with a clear parallel to' Kansas' and 'Symphony of Mind' is recommended for a fairly large audience who like symphonic rock, taking us back a few decades... | |
