To quote myself: “Whilst I would not call my self a major Prog fan. I’m quite partial to well played interesting music” - and this, the debut album from The Reasoning is most definitely interesting, and rather good to boot.

The band were formed by Matthew Cohen after his departure from Magenta, a band he had no musical input into. Feeling the need to write and record his own music he spent the next year or so assembling the line up that was to become The Reasoning and writing/recording Awakening. The band feature three lead vocalists, two male and one female and this alone would give the band a unique sound with each of the three trading lines, or supporting each other, as the song demands. Arguably it is the best use of mutli-vocalists since The Sign's debut album all those years ago. Then add in two guitarist, each with very different styles and The Reasoning really begins to show their colours.

As with most bands of this ilk there are a whole horde of influences that spring  to mind, you can hear littl bits of Pink Floyd, it Bites, Genesis and Marillion in there - Steve Rothery even supplies a guest solo on the last track Within Cold Glass. But musically the band take these influences and derive a sound that is their own, from the progressive AOR of the title track which opens the album to the Pink Floyd-esque Chasing Rainbows - complete with Sci-Fi theme and even Clannad, thanks to Rachel Jones' haunting vocal melody on Sacred Shape.

Elsewhere the band showcase their rockier side on the likes of Aching Hunger and Fallen Angel before tha album closes out with Shadows Of The Mind with echoes of Fish era Marillion and then, finally, Within Cold Glass. Once again Jones' vocals are to the fore, mixed with a truly excellent guitar solo courtesy of Marillion's Steve Rothery.

Awakening is an album that simply gets better and better the more you listen to it, revealing more of it's depth and substance. Yes there are a thousand influences on show, but it’s the way that the band blend these influences together that gives them their own sound coupled with the three vocalist's unique interplay. Quite simply Awakening is a stunning album, it may not rock like a bastard, but it does blend classic rock and prog rock sounds expertly to produce the one of the best CD's I’ve heard this year. An album that will be in my top ten come the end of the year.