London based Progressive Metal band Haken have been stuck in my mind this past month. Their debut "Aquarius" is where I decided to start following a recommendation from a blog reader. Its taken me a long time to understand and feel comfortable talking about this record, which I believe is testament to the diverse and varied offerings this record brings. In true Progressive Rock style, Haken let their music ebb and flow, twist and turn in whatever direction they are inspired to do so. The result is a record that feels grand and timely, clocking in at 72 minutes its an generous feeding of delightful Progressive music that almost to much for one session, with songs averaging 12 minutes it was tough to full grasp each of these tracks without lots of sessions.
Technically the album is solid, a clean and colorful production that captures the instruments with a touch of class, letting these talented musicians perform their captivating, exploitative music that utilizes a wide pallet of instruments, mostly likely through keyboards providing pianos, strings, organs and other synthesized sounds. Acoustic, Overdriven and sometimes Djent like guitars play along side the keys and a warm bass that brings a classic high end Death Metal sound at times. The drumming provides a fantastic backbone, building a big presence in these tracks, keeping score and participating in the narrative. This wide pallet and unity between instruments is widely explored on this record that goes through many moments and passages its hard to keep track of all the sounds, moods, tempos and dynamics experienced.
All of this diversity in sound does reside within Progressive boundaries, but its the diversity of theme that caught my attention most. Haken can bring gentle acoustic moments together with crushing Djents and dark Metal styles with effortless execution. For example the track "Streams" starts with a bright, cheerful piano lead that builds into what I can only describe as "Disney Radio" song. Warm friendly acoustic instrumentation alongside some playful lyricism about swimming with the fishes... which as I say certainly does not have a dark undertone. This song progresses, evolves and expands into a dark beast that brings one of the heaviest moments, with slow crushing guitars, doom-like keys and beastly growling vocals. This diversity is executed brilliantly, and I have nothing but good things to say of this record, however its sheer size and difficulty to digest has left me unsure of where I stand with it, its definitely great music thats throughly enjoyable, but I'm not sure it stands on the emotional level. Only time can tell.
Favorite Track: Aquariam
Rating: 7/10