ADVERSE CAMBER

After the excellent Dark Angel, released in 2008 I was expecting great things from The Reasoning with their new album Adverse Camber. It's a solid collection of songs but I have to admit to being slightly disappointed.

Despite some line up changes in the band, including the addition of Maria Owen to provide backing vocals, musically it's pretty much business as usual where the bands melodic rock template is spiced up with prog overtones. That's to say not overly complex but with enough changes and light and shade moments to add some interest. If there is a difference then I would say that the songs at times are slightly heavier and Rachel Cohen takes the lead vocals more.

At only just over forty minutes with six tracks it's a pretty short album by modern standards. All the more annoying then that despite being fairly consistently good there's only one outstanding track that I feel matches the highlights of Dark Angel's title track or Call Me God? to name just two from that strong release. The best here comes at the end with 14 where they combine some heavy guitar work which drifts into metal territory with some strong hooks, dynamics and good use of vocal harmonies between the girls and male singers of the band. A few more like this and we would have had a real winner.

The Reasoning are no doubt about it a talented band but if they want to progress up the prog ladder they'll need to come back with a killer album next time. Adverse Camber whilst unlikely to lose them any fans probably won't win them many new ones either. With new prog bands seemingly appearing every week in this current revival of the genre, the market of bands vying for your hard earned cash is if anything over-saturated. I hope that the expected second album that's to appear from The Reasoning this year delivers what's needed to make them stand out from the crowd.