Customer Reviews

Dark Angel

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great follow-up to their first album. I enjoyed "Awakening" but it had two major issues for me - one glaring, one artistic. The glaring issue was an atrocious production. I haven't heard compression so over-used in a long time, and over-processing made the vocals sound harsh and shrill. The other issue was I felt Rachel Cohen was not nearly as prominant as a lead vocalist as she should have been. I adore her voice, and after such prominance in Karnataka I thought her diminished role in The Reasoning was a let-down. Both these issues are addressed on "Dark Angel" and it has become my favorite album of their's thus far. (Although "Adverse Camber" is a very close second.) If you liked Rachel in Karnataka, then you will not be disapointed here.

If you own and liked "Awakening" you probably already own "Dark Angel".
If not, pick up "Awakening" first, it's a much stronger release. Overall, I found the song writing on "Dark Angel" to be less memorable.

this band is so DAMN good! They support MARILLION & FISH on tour later this year. This disc pick's up where tracks 5 thru 8 left off. And it's even better! The guitars and vocals cook throughout the album, flowing like a spring from the mountains, clean and clear. You need to buy this and their first one!

DARK ANGEL is a bunch of steps in several good directions for this band. Whoever produced the album made so many great decisions that let the band soar to new heights on this album.

Did they get a new guitar player?? because all of a sudden every song is filled with amazing solos. So tastefully performed that I doubt it's the same guy, but if it is, then good for you, man.. or good for you, producer of this album, for getting some great performances out of this gent.

This bands first album AWAKENING is an album full of great ideas and material that was collectively horribly performed and captured. BUT this mix on DARK ANGEL is powerful and tight.

As the album title may lead you to assume, this is a much darker, heavier sounding band when compared to the prog-light cheese that filled AWAKENING.

Most of the songs use heavy riffs and vocal melodies that stay in minor keys throughout. The band sounds great on every track. I've listened to it about 10 times now and there are no songs to skip (AWAKENING was better if you skipped about half of the album).

I thought about giving this album 5 stars, but really... the bar has been raised so high by METAMORPHOSIS by MAGENTA that my whole ratings scale has been thrown off. This is one of the better prog albums I've heard recently. Highly recommended to fans of AWAKENING and people who have never heard of this band but are fans of great heavy dark prog with three amazing lead vocalists.