DARK ANGEL

After a promising debut The Reasoning's second album Dark Angel shows the band really finding their feet with a more satisfying and consistent piece of work. The arrival of Rachel Cohen when 2007's Awakening was well on the way to completion meant she didn't feature too much on that album. Now firmly entrenched in the band her presence goes a long way to improving the bands sound with her lovely melancholic tones.

Complex musical structures is not what The Reasoning are about. Classic rock plays as big a part as prog influences in their sound. Solid musical structures from a powerful rhythm section with heavy, sometimes veering into metal territory guitar riffs and keyboards with an ear on strong melodies is what you can expect. That's not to say the songs lack dynamics as they colour the music with plenty of use of light and shade moments too. They also have the benefit of 3 members of the band who can sing giving them the opportunity to make good use of harmony vocals.

There's no big epics here, most songs are around the five minute mark though they do stretch out occasionally with A Musing Dream being the longest at just over 9 minutes. One of the finest moments comes in Call Me God? with a driving riff and an instantly accessible hook. A mid song (largely) instrumental break works well and slows things down with a pleasing acoustic guitar solo.

There's some mellower moments like Breaking The 4th Wall and In The Future buts it's on the more dynamic slightly longer pieces where they're at their best, the title track and Sharp Sea making a great 1 - 2 opener fall into this category. Equally good is the already mentioned A Musing Dream with its eastern vibe.

Apparently The Reasoning intend on releasing 2 albums in 2010. On the strength of Dark Angel I'll be very interested to hear them.