The Reasoning

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 Slartibartfast wrote:

Thanks for the tip on the new one.  Just got in on the preorder.

Nice one! Matt from The Reasoning sent me an advance copy of Dark Angel yesterday. The first time I've heard the finished product. 

Over the last year I've been unbelievably
fortunate to share with Matt, Rach and the rest of the guys the
incredible journey they've been on that has resulted in Dark Angel. The
trials, tribulations, emotional highs and lows, Lee's departure and
Owain's arrival, the gigs, curries and the occasional wee drinkie. It's
been a real rollercoaster ride, great fun, tremendously exciting and
exhausting, and all I've done is watch! (except for the curries and
drinking, that is, obviously).

So it was with considerable excitement but also serious trepidation
that I listened to the finished product last night. After all, these
guys are my friends, and what if I had to tell them that, really, it
didn't really live up to my expectations; that, for me, it didn't quite
hit the mark? I'd always promised them an honest opinion, and whilst
that wouldn't affect our friendship it would be a bit of a downer
nonetheless. After all, Awakening was my favourite album of last year
and is indeed one of my all time favourites, hence my championing of
all things-Reasoning ever since.

Ha! .
Dark Angel just takes everything to another level entirely. If
Awakening was about a band asking questions, trying to find their feet,
sound and musical direction, Dark Angel is their answer. Nine tracks -
from full-on hard rocking blockbusters, three of which have already
been played live, to gorgeous, lush, complex melodies that allow each
singer to take the lead on songs of different styles and stamp on them
their own personalities, but which equally enable them combine to form
exquisite harmonies. 

I hadn't planned on posting anything around the tinterweb for a few days, at the
earliest, but the more I've listened to it over the last 24 hours
(being at work strangely not a hinderance today  ) the more I've realised that I can't keep this to myself any longer: Dark Angel is stunning. Simply stunning.