I'm pretty surprised at the reactions to the lack of those a capella sections. I mean, they've only done two in their entire history. It's not remotely, in any way, a core part of Haken's sound.
Furthermore, there's a whole bunch of new styles and ideas on this album. In the same way that they introduced things like the a capella and others on the Mountain (and broadly stuck with that style on Restoration), they're continuing to introduce more new things as well.