It’s been a rough year for The Reasoning after the disappearance of guitarist Owain Roberts who was reportedly missing in March of this year and there’s an ongoing search to bring him back safe and sound. The band is still worried about what happened to him, but they have Owain in their heart and soul and let him know they still care for him and hope that he’s okay.
And since with their
announcement on being signed to Mark Powell’s new label for up-and-coming
bands/artists with Esoteric Antenna, it all makes perfect sense to be signed
with one of the most independent prog labels that has been around reissuing
obscure albums since 2007 and now helping new bands getting a lot of
recognition. That and their new album, Adventures in Neverland, has a spiritual
and dramatic journey on their story and looking forward into the future on what
has happened and what will the long and winding road will take them into.
The opening introduction,
Hyperdrive, starts off with a countdown and then goes into a heavy rocking exploration
into the outer limits with Keith Hawkins’ guitar lines, keyboards, bass work,
and Rachel Cohen’s vocals, feels very sci-fi and deeper elements that makes
them feel that they could have written a concept album on the TV series,
Firefly. The alarming guitar punches feels like its looking for its prey on The
Omega Point before going into this gentle and haunting middle-eastern surround
atmosphere in the piece while The Glass Half carries the spooky metallic
elements like a mysterious creature coming from another planet.
It has the synths, Brian
May-like guitar sound, Matt Cohen’s bass work, and smoothing drum works by
giving Rachel dancing to the beat and coming in by dealing how to be remembered
as the only survivor on the post-apocalyptic planet. It all comes to the
driving energy beat of Stop the Clock which it’s the catchiest and soothing songs
by dealing with trying to race and escape the dystopian world before it
collapses and dealing how blind the place has become with corruption as the
piece has some similarities of Rush’s modern work as if it was left off the
sessions for Grace Under Pressure.
Otherworld begins with a
lullaby keyboard introduction done by Tony Turrell as he takes Rachel into a
calm after the storm which deals with moving on and the struggles on breaking
down the door and finding out who you are and not running away in this moving
ballad. You can tell that Rachel’s got an amazing angelic voice that makes you
feel that she’s right behind you to calm you down and lets the listener know
that everything’s okay.
I can also tell there is
some Alternative Rock flavor in the Reasoning’s work as its evidential with End
of Days which the band go into the dreamland mode about the heart of human kind
is coming to an end while the fierce and synth freak-out turned ballad mode on
No Friend of Mine deals with the corruption on the Social Network and how its
affecting the teenager’s mind and alienating their friends and being an
isolated person. The lyrics are poignant as
Rachel sings about keeping distance away from your loved ones and dealing with
the person’s dark side; "It might be best to wait a little longer/listen
carefully, there’s so much I need to say/do you really dare to think you know
me?/always quick to decide but if you live another day/Keep your distance.” Threnody
is another track that I imagine the band might have been reading a lot of the
stories from the DC universe and Sci-Fi stories as well for research by going
into this album.
It is another dramatic
swirling composition that has some virtuoso guitar sound, layered upbeats, and
hypnotic keyboard work as the lyrics talk about what do you want in return
after shaking hands with the devil and being betrayed by getting out of the
mess from being tortured and how it can be done not to make the mistakes you’ve
made and how you’ve let your friends down in the lost and found section.
Forest in the Hands and
Teeth has this Atmospheric/New Age sound as it goes into the sounds of
Tangerine Dream’s Phaedra period with its gentle folk lukewarm crisp that has
this strange combination of gothic/horror fairy-tale for adults in the realms
of Edgar Allen Poe meets HP Lovecraft while the closing title track resembles
the era of Pink Floyd’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason. The 7-minute piece begins
with Keith’s guitar playing doing a Gilmour-sque introduction as it appears to go
into Symphonic Town about going into the world of Neverland and seeing how its
beautiful and surreal it has become.
Wonderous, Moody, Magical,
and Beautiful, Adventures in Neverland is The Reasoning’s finest work and has a
Sci-Fi Rock Opera flavor to support the elements in their musical career. The
Reasoning surely bring an atmospheric fairy tale compositions in their work and
they have done a superb job, a highly recommended album to listen to.
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