The Reasoning presented their new album, Adverse Camber, which has a sound that is rough around the edges in comparison to their last album Dark Angel. It also is about 10 minutes shorter and is more accessible which should get more fans from the mainstream side of music. Other changes include the addition of Maria Owen (backing vocals) and Rachel Cohen has more vocal time. The end result is an album that sits upon the fence that divides the melodic and progressive rock genres. Also there are some heavier or metallic moments.
Starting off the album is “Diamonds And Leather” (6:01), which is quite a raw sounding track that could have had more of a symphonic background. Other than that it’s a great straight forward hard rocking song with the progressive moments.
“The Nobody Effect” (7:04) continues in the hard progressive rock vein and is another song that’s accessible (a good thing). Here we have a more progressive and symphonic sound like their previous albums. This song also has the band in full throttle mode.
“The Thirteenth Hour” (7:44) starts out with melodic acoustic guitars with the drumming providing a backbone. It soon morphs into a hard rocking progressive song. It also has a longer instrumental beginning than the other songs.
“Through The Now” (7:53) is the longest track on the album and has both Matthew and Rachel sharing vocals. It’s the most melodic sounding song on the album. I wished there was more songs on the album in this vein.
“Script Switch Trigger” (5:54) is the shortest track on the album
And has a piano/acoustic guitar opening and another highlight for me. The vocals are so angelic here and soothes your soul. There’s very little to do with progressive rock here but that’s okay in my book.
“14” (6:55) ends off the album perfectly, in my opinion. It has elements of the entire album here and very progressive. If I had to pick a track that best describes The Reasoning, it would be “14”. I tend to gravitate towards this song more than the rest of the album.
In closing, I feel for this to have been a perfect album, the band could have expanded in some areas. Not to say this is a bad album, just that it’s not the best one to be an entry point into the world of The Reasoning.
Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on October 6th, 2010
