DARK ANGEL

I first heard The Reasoning in the summer at the Cambridge Rock Festival where I didn't know whether I enjoyed their set or not. I decided that you probably have to know the songs to fully appreciate them so I decided to buy Dark Angel when it came out because the songs they played from it at the Festival were probably my favourite ones. This is a fantastically dark album with lots of great, heavy riffs and haunting yet uplifting keyboards. This is the first album with new guitarist Owain Roberts and his 'metal' influence is definatley on this album even though he did not contribute to nay of the songs. Here is a track by track run through:

Dark Angel - The title track of the album starts of with a lengthy intro with lots of nice guitar work. When Rachel Cohen's voice starts you know that this track is going to be a winner. One of the best album intros that I can think of. 9/10

Sharp Sea - After a very calming start with noices of waves and atmospheric keyboards, a grinding riffs begins that makes this quite a heavy yet relaxing song. The lyrics are good and the way it is sung is excellent. 8/10

How Far to Fall - This is a very nice peaceful song. Not as powerful as te opening two in my opinion but not a bad song by any stretch. 7/10

Serenity - A short-ish instrumental that acts as a kind of intro for the next track, it's nice but nothing special. 6/10

Call Me God? - This song starts with quite dark keyboards and then turns out to be the heaviest and, in my opinion, the best track on the album. It makes use of the three singers to great effect and has grea vocals. It also has double-bass pedals which I like. 10/10

In the Future - Another fairly calm song greatly sung chiefly by Dylan Thompson. Quite a powerful song, but not as good as some of the others on the album. Has a great guitar solo though. 7/10

Absolute Zero - Another 'nice' song but nothing really that special. Quite short too by their standards. 6/10

Breaking the 4th Wall - Another fantastic song with great vocal interchanges between Rachel Cohen and Gareth Jones. This is probably the most beautiful song on the album. 9/10

A Musing Dream - This is longest track on the album at 9:13 this really summarises all the ideas on the album really well and makes for a fantastic, if not slightly abbrupt ending. 9/10

As I have not yet heard 'Awakening', I cannot say how this compares to it but I know that by listening to this album, I KNOW that this is a winner.

The Reasoning's first album, Awaken, was one of the rock highlights of 2007 and many fans have been waiting in anticipation for the release of the follow up, Dark Angel. They will not be disappointed: Dark Angel is as good, if not better, than its predecessor.

The first album opened with the brilliant, explosive title track, "Awaken" and consequently there was much hanging on the quality of the title track here, also placed in pole position on the album. "Dark Angel" is, whilst perhaps not quite as good as "Awaken" itself, an outstanding album opener and more than good enough to herald the way into what turns out to be an equally outstanding album.

Comparing Dark Angel to Awaken, I think that the band have improved. The album overall has a more assured and confident feel about it, as though the positive reaction to Awaken has served to boost the musicians' songwriting, performing and production confidence/performance. Dark Angel has less pace overall than its predecessor. There are plenty of pacey, rocky moments for sure, and some sterling guitar work, but the band have developed the songwriting to provide more variety in the pace and, also, deliver some memorable melodic writing on the slower numbers. The beauty of the slower numbers has definitely increased from the first album. Also, the production/mixing sound cleaner and the keyboards are more prominent in the mix than on Awaken, but this has been achieved without losing that rocky edge sound that is a hallmark of the band.

If you've not heard Awaken yet but are interested in the band, then their soundscape is dominated by a classic rock sound based on the two guitars of Dylan Thompson and Owain Roberts (who replaced Lee Wright after the release of Awakening) - lots of gorgeous lead guitar soloing. Keyboards and piano sounds feature prominently also and, as I've said above, are more abundant on Dark Angel. Another strong feature that greatly adds to the appeal are the stunning vocal performances courtesy of THREE vocalists - Rachel Cohen, Dylan and the keyboardist Gareth Jones. The way these three swap the lead vocal duty and contribute harmonies within the music makes for a truly great rock sound.

It's difficult to pick out highlights as the standard is consistently high. There is "Dark Angel" itself of course but others that are contenders for the "best track" after a couple of listens are "Sharp Sea"; "How Far to Fall", which is one of the slower tempo songs that shows how the band have improved in a number of areas; "Absolute Zero", rockier with a good rhythm and some super piano playing and "Breaking the 4th Wall", a bittersweet love duet with Rachel and Gareth on vocals. Special mentions also to "A Musing Dream", which is sonically the closest to material on the first album and the very pretty, very short instrumental "Serenity".

My CD came with a "parental advisory" sticker for explicit content. Not sure why, but it may be for the lyrics of "Call Me God?" that some people may take to be blasphemous. Good song though.

and it's just struck me that the only track I've not mentioned is "In the Future" - very good again - assured melodic writing and a great guitar solo!

It's an excellent album - enjoy!!

This is just a simple, quick review, as I'm listening to the new album as I type.
If you liked the bands first album - Awakening - you won't be disappointed.
I thought that Rachel's vocal power, was not used to it's best adavantage, on Awakening (she almost became a "backing" singer).....this has been rectified.
She takes "front-stage" on a number of the tracks, and overall the result is a 11 out of 10.
6 of the 9 tracks are well over 5 minutes long, powerful, melodic, and a winner though-out.
My copy also has the bonus DVD, The Making Of Dark Angel.