THE REASONING

The Reasoning . Adventures In Neverland....or we might say TR Never... should have abandoned the good music they displayed in Dark Angel.

Strange situation....TR one per middle take out a good album. Awakening...so so....Dark Angel...gooood....Adverse Camber...bad....a retrocess .

Now we have A In N ....a quite lighter album than the before ones . With a remarkable mixture of styles....neo-prog and heavy prog...but mostly folk prog...(some passages in the style of Mostly Autumn)

A musical Adventure in TR Land ...a good adventure...nice songs...

So a good improvement for TR.

In my opinion good news from The Reasoning (I was very disappointed with Adverse Camber)

So now : 4 well deserved stars.

The Reasoning's essential formula is basically sound - take a dark and gothy interpretation of Porcupine Tree's heavy prog sound and add the vocals of Rachel Cohen to give things a little Renaissance touch - but I feel the execution on Dark Angel, whilst diverting enough, could be better. In particular, they have a bad tendency to drag songs out for too long after their ideas have worn out their welcome - Call Me God?, in particular, gets downright tedious towards the end, particularly with its repetitive and deeply irritating refrain. It's a fun album but I don't think I'll be holding onto it personally.

The lastest album to dat of The Reasoning from 2010 named Adverse camber issued at same Comet Music is lets say ok, little more mainstream to my ears, but aswell keeping the same attitude of the previous album. Again this kind of prog aproach of the band gives me hard times listning to it, really , crossover prog with gothic feel is not for me. The album is for sure less prog metalic like previous album, the band concentrated more on melodic side this time with some exceptions like ending track 14, well not bad entirely but the pieces are totaly unmemorable to me. Eh, this is a modern album with modern sound and with modern prog, if I can call it prog, a thing I can't appreciate to full capacity, really, to much time they want to sound like Muse or Porcupine Tree. No a piece is in front , all are almost mediocre at best, only the cover ar save the album from being a total desater. Hardly 3 stars, I'll give 3 stars because there are some ok parts, but overall is far less intristing then many album I've gave 3 stars, and weakest then Dark angel for sure. Forgetable album IMO with no creative arragements, not great musicianship, is almost a simple album to listen in the background.

The Resoning is one of the popular bands coming from UK in last years, with 3 studio albums rleased so far. This is their second album from 2008 named Dark Angel and issued on small label Comet Music. The band was formed in 2005 by the bass player Matthew Cohen after he left another british band named Magenta. Well, what I found here gave me mix feelings, I don't really enjoy much this kind of prog, is not neo , is not prog metal, is something in between with some gothic touch here and there added. This type of prog, crossover prog, quite very much in places reminds me of Porcupine Tree but with almost prog metal elements added, with duo female/male vocal arrangements not do a lot for me, but I can appreciate that this is a good album with pleasent moments in places. Rachel's voice is ok, she can sing ok, but something is missing in her tone of voice, sometimes is so cold, but in same time I like a lot the male parts, like the ending track, the longest tune of the album named A musing dream, I like the tone of the voice. Another good piece is Sharp Sea has some good keybords and solid rhytmic section, the rest is just ok. So, I will give 3 stars, no more no less, an ok album to me , but far from being something special, there are better albums and more intristing in this scene that desearve attention, than this Dark Angel.

Acoustically Speaking does the expected; it transforms The Reasoning's material into a more earthy, folk-rock sound. It also does the unexpected, which is to create a richer atmosphere for the songs and actually improve some of them from their initial incarnations. Without the neo-prog meets corset metal embellishments, the melodies and basic rhythm structures of the music has to stand alone, and it works. Why? Because the songs are memorable, catchy and quite often gorgeous.

My prior familiarity with the band was solely with Dark Angel, thus hearing that album's title track as well as A Musing Dream and In The Future with new instrumentation was almost a revelation. The songs seem to flow better here and have a richer sound and added warmth. These versions aren't completely stripped down versions of the originals, since the overall sound of this album is as lush and full as ever. There's drums, bass, guitars and keyboards with some sweet surprises such as that fantastic smooth trumpet solo during The Thirteenth Hour, but don't expect wailing guitar leads, double-bass drum pedaling or crunchy guitar riff chugging. The guitars are never distorted, giving the album a breezy vibe, yet the songs are busy enough to never get even remotely tiresome.

The dual vocal approach here is another highlight. We're not dealing with technically astounding vocalists, but the male and female dynamic is a rare treat in that it doesn't sound like a corny duet, a dialogue-based "story" approach, or a situation where one vocalist completely outshines the other. Both main vocalists sing well and compliment each other perfectly and when they trade off verses or sections it feels like a natural progression as opposed to a jarring change of dynamics. The last half of A Musing Dream is a fine example of how this approach to singing can create something beautiful.

It's tricky to rate an album like this for this site. These versions of the songs are perhaps less proggy than their original versions by simplifying the song structures and some of the instrumentation for the purposes of gaining atmosphere. Yet the songs themselves retain plenty of creative elements and actually have more character and uniqueness in this format than a lot of modern prog offerings I've been hearing. I'm not a softy music-listening-wise (I can enjoy stuff like Portal and Immolation...play some Portal for your mother in a car someday), but I prefer this album to their heavier-based material. Excellent stuff.

An energetic performance, top quality sound, well shot video, but only four songs??? Damn shame.

Well, for someone who isn't likely to be able to see them live any time soon, this is a real treat. All of their studio albums to date are solid and they put on a set with two songs from their latest, Adverse Camber, along with one each from Dark Angel and Awakening.

The band lineup has changed slightly, with a new keyboard player and drummer stepping in, as well as the addition of another woman vocalist, Maria Owen, to back up Rachel.

They do make up for the short set with a couple of "acoustic" versions of songs performed as a warm up on stage the night before their official High Voltage festival appearance. Then there's the amusing answers to questions from the fan section and a couple of guys from the band doing a bungie ball ride at the festival. Disposable bits to be sure, but hey, might as well fill out the DVD. Still worth having even if there's only 6 songs. I eagerly await a full length live DVD at some point in the future. Perhaps with your next album guys?

Well this is probably their best issue so far (since their year of foundation, 2005), even though this is a Neo-Prog effort in the vein of some recent albums by Fish or also the modern Marillion, but according anyway to a style of their own...as I told you recently that- for instance- Porcupine Tree seem a new edited and "musically-corrected" version of a floydian ensemble, in the same manner T.R. seem a new "reading"- key, regarding the late Neo Prog stuff from the UK. Besides the female vocalist- Maria Owen- is not bad and, in spite of a diverse impact in comparison to a few more "prog psychedelic" bands, which have been always so much influenced by Pink Floyd (or also regarding of a delicate touch used in an alternating strong mood a-la Magenta, here almost definitively lacking), T.R. anyway have been able to trace a personal path. They are creative, not an innovative ensemble of progressive rock, but They have got a great experience in the last years; so- for me- this feature alone could be enough to let us decide to check this "Adverse Camber" out, at least!!

Note: I like to make a special mention for the original imagine of the album cover which, combined with the personality of the musicians, let me think of adding an half star in the final score!!

Vocal based new prog !

When I heard the tunes at first time, I got captured by the guitar sounds, but later I became aware that this band is Vocal band. Well, the female vocalist is primarily main front as from the beginning, but the band has turned out to be not the second version of Karnataka but a new style prog band which attracts you by variety of chorus singings.

When you listen to Yes music, most probably you like the chorus singings by Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, and Chris Squire as well as their amazing instruments plays. You can imagine that The Reasoning's attractiveness is similar to that. Actually, this is fresh experience which I have not had since I got away from the late albums of Yes. They are also talented for composing.

4 stars for me.

MAGENTA bass player Matthew Cohen put this band together gradually adding the pieces until the lineup was complete. The most significant piece would seem to be Rachel Jones formerly of KARNATAKA, but she's one of three lead vocalists that share the duties.

"Awakening" is the best song on here. I like when it gets heavier. Male vocals before 1 1/2 minutes. A nice heavy undercurrent here. Rachel leads for a while too. The guitar lights it up before 5 minutes. "Chasing Rainbows" opens like a FLOYD track. Spoken words after a minute then it kicks in as vocals follow. It's a pretty good tune. "Playing The Game" is piano and vocal led and it's kind of poppy. "Aching Hunger" opens with the guitar crying out until it kicks in with female vocals after a minute. It's fairly heavy.

"Sacred Shape" has these female vocal melodies as acoustic guitar comes in. Male vocals too. It gets fuller with some good guitar. "Fallen Angels" opens with atmosphere then it kicks in with female and male vocals. It's okay. "Shadows Of The Mind" has an almost jazzy vibe to start then vocals come in and a heavier sound. It settles 3 minutes in with female vocals then picks back up. "Within Cold Glass" has some guest violin in it as sounds come and go. Piano leads 2 minutes in followed by female vocals. Some nice soaring guest guitar from Steve Rothery (MARILLION) too 3 1/2 minutes in. The second best song in my opinion.

Good album but the next one "Dark Angel" is better.

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.