ALBUM REVIEW: Last Remaining Pinnacle – Visitors

For those not familiar with Last Remaining Pinnacle, the Virginia duo recently wrapped up a 4 day mini-tour with Greenville “it” kids Modern Man hitting Greenville, Columbia, Myrtle Beach and Charleston. I got a chance to see them when they came through Greenville, and when I received an Inquisition reference to my Strike Anywhere (those are bands, sorry) shirt I was wearing, I knew I was in good company.

My first instinct about this album is you’re not going to hear many albums that sound like this this year. The production while well-recorded is also very minimalist, there’s not a lot of bells and whistles, and the songs themselves are very straighforward. Sonically the album puts me in the mind of the first NIN album, Pretty Hate Machine or Ministry’s 1989 album The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste, especially due to the face that the band uses a drum machine for the drum tracks.

This is actually a guitar album masquerading as an Industrial album in some regards. “Start” displays some soaring and atmospheric guitar lines and “Lies” bends, breaks, and squeals with the best of them. At times it can be a little trebly and the guitar can be a little too much in the mix for casual listeners, but this is a guitar nerd album for guitar nerds. While most of the tracks dwell in the same musical terrain, of note is the instrumental “Mantle Rotation 3″ which trades in the feedback for delay and the squeals for swells, and does a good job of breaking up the album some.

This is one of those love it or hate it albums, and within the first 30 seconds you’re going to know if it’s for you or not. My only real criticism is that the lyrics sometimes come across as too simplistic and all too often beat a rhyme scheme to death (7 Dollar Room) but that’s what I get for criticizing lyrics on a guitar rock album.

You can stream the album below and download it for only $8. LP and Cassette versions are coming soon.