HAken the League - CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH (and 3rd place match)

[Destiny Of Chaos]

Haken the League – Championship Tournament
Seeds
1. Celestial Elixir
2. Falling Back to Earth
3. The Architect
4. Visions
5. Pareidolia
6. Aquarium
7. The Endless Knot
8. 1985
9. Cockroach King
10. Initiate
11. Crystallised
12. Drowning in the Flood
13. Streams
14. In Memoriam
15. Atlas Stone
16. Earthrise

Opening Round
1. Celestial Elixir defeats 16. Earthrise 12-2
9. Cockroach King defeats  8. 1985 8-7  (I broke the tie)
5. Pareidolia defeats 12. Drowning in the Flood 11-3
13. Streams defeats 4. Visions 8-5
3. The Architect defeats 14. In Memoriam 11-3
6. Aquarium defeats 11. Crystallised 8-6 
7. The Endless Knot defeats 10. Initiate 8-5
2. Falling Back to Earth defeats 15. Atlas Stone 13-1

Quarterfinals
1. Celestial Elixir defeats 9. Cockroach King 12-7
5. Pareidolia defeats 13. Streams 14-5
3. The Architect defeats 6. Aquarium 11-7
2. Falling Back to Earth defeats 7. The Endless Knot 10-9 
 
Semifinals
5. Pareidolia defeats 1. Celestial Elixir 8-7 (I Broke the Tie)
3. The Architect defeats Falling Back to Earth 8-5


3rd Place Match
Please vote for the song that you’d like to see win this match

1.   Celestial Elixir vs. 2. Falling Back to Earth



Haken - The League  Championship Match

Please crown the 1st ever Haken – The League Champion!

3.  The Architect vs. 5. Pareidolia

48 hours to vote

[Evermind]

Can't believe CE against FBTE is the third place match. That should've been the championship match.

Celestial Elixir

Pareidolia

[The Silent Cody]

Falling Back To Earth and The Architect of course. I started to appreciate Affinity more than I used to since yesterday...I give it a solid listen from start to the end and it clicked

[Crow]

DoC is the worst tiebreaker in history 
I agree with ev, switch the third place and championship rounds

CE and Pareidolia, anyways

[Elite]

DoC is the worst tiebreaker in history 

Indeed. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS

[jakepriest]

DoC is the worst tiebreaker in history 
I agree with ev, switch the third place and championship rounds

CE and Pareidolia, anyways

[TheCountOfNYC]

DoC is the worst tiebreaker in history 

Indeed. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS

[ToT-147]

: Falling Back to Earth and The Architect  - these are actually my favorite Haken's songs..

I said it back then and say it again...

Ok, so here we go..

[Crow]

the architect winning the entire league would be the dumbest possible outcome as it's by far, BY FAR, the weakest of the four tracks here

[jakepriest]

the architect winning the entire league would be the dumbest possible outcome as it's by far, BY FAR, the weakest of the four tracks here

x1000

[Elite]

Yup

[Evermind]

the architect winning the entire league would be the dumbest possible outcome as it's by far, BY FAR, the weakest of the four tracks here

I agree.

[Destiny Of Chaos]

As far as I can remember, if the Architect wins, this will be the first time that my favorite song has ever won a survivor or league on this forum. Totally happy with how this has all played out. 

[Crow]

doc you have broken like every tie badly and are cheering the worst result, we can't be friends 

[Destiny Of Chaos]

doc you have broken like every tie badly and are cheering the worst result, we can't be friends 

I'm cheering the best result, as The Architect is heads and shoulders above anything that they've ever done at just about every standpoint.

And honestly, I didn't expect to be in a position to break such important ties, but apparently the voting base was split on a few of these.

[Crow]

it's got the problem a ton of epics do where it has some great moments but the song feels like a patchwork of ideas rather than a cohesive whole & there's a fair amount of filler that could've been cut (that mid section especially goes on way too long)

celestial elixir is haken's only really good epic because it feels cohesive as heck and doesn't overstay its welcome. also dat chorus 

[Destiny Of Chaos]

it's got the problem a ton of epics do where it has some great moments but the song feels like a patchwork of ideas rather than a cohesive whole & there's a fair amount of filler that could've been cut (that mid section especially goes on way too long)

celestial elixir is haken's only really good epic because it feels cohesive as heck and doesn't overstay its welcome. also dat chorus 

Totally agreed with CE... it's a well composed epic with plenty of great callbacks to the rest of the album. Incredible piece of work for a band's first album.

[Evermind]

celestial elixir is haken's only really good epic because it feels cohesive as heck and doesn't overstay its welcome. also dat chorus 

My favourite moments on Aquarius are 1) Celestial Elixir's first and third verses (and the bit in the second one that shares the melody from the first verse) 2) Celestial Elixir's chorus 3) Aquarium verses. The vocal melodies in Celestial Elixir are just so good.

The Architect starts out really strong, then the middle quiet section comes in and I lose interest in the song until the Initiate guitar melody comes up.

[jakepriest]

The Architect starts out really strong, then the middle quiet section comes in and I lose interest in the song until the Initiate guitar melody comes up.

Yes. Thank you. I just skip the middle section whenever the song comes up.

Also CE's verses so much better than the chorus, and the best thing Haken have done along with Pareidolia's solo part.

[Crow]

omg someone tied it and doc is going to waltz right in here and break the tie badly AGAIN

[Destiny Of Chaos]

YES WE DID IT!!!!

[jakepriest]

we need scar

[ToT-147]

Yessssss!..

Best tiebreaker: DoC..

celestial elixir is haken's only really good epic because it feels cohesive as heck and doesn't overstay its welcome. also dat chorus 

My favourite moments on Aquarius are 1) Celestial Elixir's first and third verses (and the bit in the second one that shares the melody from the first verse) 2) Celestial Elixir's chorus 3) Aquarium verses. The vocal melodies in Celestial Elixir are just so good.

Do you all really like the circus section that much to at least not have issues with it?.. For me it ruins what's otherwise a very good song.. It's an average (Haken average) song because of that and the long that it gets.. Just the contrary with The Architect.. The middle part?.. I certainly don't love it and can understand the boredom it produce in others (apparently the majority), but it doesn't even start to spoil in the slightest the almost excellent song it is..

[RoeDent]

Yessssss!..

Best tiebreaker: DoC..

celestial elixir is haken's only really good epic because it feels cohesive as heck and doesn't overstay its welcome. also dat chorus 

My favourite moments on Aquarius are 1) Celestial Elixir's first and third verses (and the bit in the second one that shares the melody from the first verse) 2) Celestial Elixir's chorus 3) Aquarium verses. The vocal melodies in Celestial Elixir are just so good.

Do you all really like the circus section that much to at least not have issues with it?.. For me it ruins what's otherwise a very good song.. It's an average (Haken average) song because of that and the long that it gets.. Just the contrary with The Architect.. The middle part?.. I certainly don't love it and can understand the boredom it produce in others (apparently the majority), but it doesn't even start to spoil in the slightest the almost excellent song it is..

Neither does the "circus" section spoil the completely excellent song that is Celestial Elixir. In fact, that was one of the main things that got me into the song. I'd never heard anything like it in rock music at all. And for the record, The Architect is a completely excellent song as well, middle part included. If you want constant balls-to-the-wall with no contrast whatsoever, stay with The Glass Prison or something.

[jakepriest]

There's good contrast (think Celestial Elixir soft verses and the rest of the song) and there's forced contrast for the sake of making an epic. Architect falls into the latter category imo.

[ToT-147]

There's good contrast (think Celestial Elixir soft verses and the rest of the song) and there's forced contrast for the sake of making an epic. Architect falls into the latter category imo.

I don't think they've intentionally decided at a certain point of the creating process of the song to include a contrast to the heaviness of the start only because the song was gonna be "an epic", which is why you're implying.. We can't know this for sure, but from my experience these kind of things just happen, they're not "forced" to happen by the musician.. What you're saying is that it feels forced when you listen to it, and that's ok.. But, even then, that's obviously just one point of view, certainly not mine..

[BlackInk]

I think Celestial Elixir is a better song, but the contrasts in The Architect feel more natural.

[Evermind]

And for the record, The Architect is a completely excellent song as well, middle part included. If you want constant balls-to-the-wall with no contrast whatsoever, stay with The Glass Prison or something.

God knows I've been avoiding most of the potential arguments on this board because I just want to have a friendly discussion about music and related themes, not bothering with arguing any point I don't agree with, but damn it, I just can't ignore that because this little statement aggravated me like nothing else lately for some reason.

I mean, just look at you, charging into the discussion on your high horse again as you usually do and claiming that basically everyone who complains about The Architect's middle part wants to hear songs that are "constant balls-to-the-wall with no contrast whatsoever".

I can't speak for everyone here who dislikes The Architect's middle section, but I can tell you that the quiet sections are usually my favourite in Haken's music—I think that the quiet verses of Aquarium are excellent, the songs like Sun, Deathless, Somebody and As Death Embraces are in my constant rotation, the verses of Nocturnal Conspiracy are great, and my favourite moment on Visions album is the moment when Shapeshifter suddenly goes for the quiet vocal passages after two verse-chorus routine—and I think this assumption that everyone who dislikes the quiet moments in The Architect simply wants some balls-to-the-wall music is silly and annoying. In my opinion, which, of course and obviously is pretty different compared to yours, the quiet middle part in The Architect is simply quite boring and not-that-exciting-at-all to me. There is difference between disliking something because it features a certain style, tempo and atmosphere, as opposed to because you just don't think it's good music. With the middle section of The Architect, I tend to fall into the latter bracket.

And not really important to the argument I'm perhaps going to start with this post, I don't like The Glass Prison at all, it's somewhere in the bottom 20 DT songs for me. But hey, good on you for assuming this stuff for me.