Haken v. new single Nightingale (April 26)

[Sir Walrus Cauliflower]

I honestly hate Cockroach King. That song alone is the reason I prefer Visions over The Mountain. Luckily for me, nothing on the new album sounds like Cockroach King.

[Evermind]

...with train of naught.

And a cockroach.

[Train of Naught]

The Train of Naught sits on his throne

I honestly hate Cockroach King.

[Evermind]

The Train of Naught sits on his throne

I honestly hate Cockroach King.

Listening to the song right now and here's what I've got.

They can't sleep
I was gazing at the mirror

I learned to be
Earn a pass hold
Of a self-made man

Hopelessly
I paved in my ignorance

Desperately
Talking on the roachifying me

I mean, ToN, if we meet up next year in Germany, we need to go to the karaoke bar and I hope they have Cockroach King.

[Train of Naught]

I'd be down, I think some bars allow customer CD's so you could bring a copy of The Mountain I do a mean Ross Jennings dude, you don't know who you're competing against.

[Evermind]

I'd be down, I think some bars allow customer CD's so you could bring a copy of The Mountain I do a mean Ross Jennings dude, you don't know who you're competing against.

You won't be competing after you hear my version of Cockroach King. I've only got these lyrics because I was actively listening to this song. They'll probably hospitalize you because of extensive laugh which is bad for your stomach or something.

But hey, there are some harmonies too, we can do this together and everyone will be throwing up in awe. Actually, why am I striking this out? Everyone will be throwing up in awe.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

1985 is just pure fun! Having my first listen right now so alot to take in.

[Zydar]

The Architect is a prog beast.

[Train of Naught]

I'd be down, I think some bars allow customer CD's so you could bring a copy of The Mountain I do a mean Ross Jennings dude, you don't know who you're competing against.

You won't be competing after you hear my version of Cockroach King. I've only got these lyrics because I was actively listening to this song. They'll probably hospitalize you because of extensive laugh which is bad for your stomach or something.

But hey, there are some harmonies too, we can do this together and everyone will be throwing up in awe. Actually, why am I striking this out? Everyone will be throwing up in awe.

I hope we don't bail on this one looking forward to it.

[Evermind]

I'd be down, I think some bars allow customer CD's so you could bring a copy of The Mountain I do a mean Ross Jennings dude, you don't know who you're competing against.

You won't be competing after you hear my version of Cockroach King. I've only got these lyrics because I was actively listening to this song. They'll probably hospitalize you because of extensive laugh which is bad for your stomach or something.

But hey, there are some harmonies too, we can do this together and everyone will be throwing up in awe. Actually, why am I striking this out? Everyone will be throwing up in awe.

I hope we don't bail on this one looking forward to it.

That depends... but the fact I'm travelling to Germany in 2017 is pretty much settled unless Gilmour announces his tour elsewhere, and I've got The Mountain CD, so I think the probability is quite high here.

[Implode]

The Architect is a prog beast.

That extended bass solo. 

[MustActFastToCoverUp]

I'm not halfway through, but, man, what an album!

[Nick]

OUT OF THIS WORLD: Earthrise

Yay, that's probably my favourite too!

o/

*\o

Man, been awhile since I had a nice quality interception.

[ariich]

It's also been quite a while since my last DAMMIT NICK

[countoftuscany42]

i want my vinyl copy to arrive cause i don't want to listen to it any other way until then 
haven't gotten any kind of shipping notification, but that doesn't always mean anything.  i ordered the vinyl of The Mountain with it, hope that wasn't holding anything up for some reason..
excited to have it though 

[mikemangioy]

Haven't posted for a while here.

But this album is something else, really. I didn't think that the follow up for something so good as The Mountain, could be so satisfying and mature.

Calling it:

The Moutain = Images And Words
Affinity = Awake

My favorite is 1985. It's a near perfect song. Along that, Earthrise and The Architect, but truly, each song is incredible on its own.

[senecadawg2]

I've always struggled to get into Haken. Despite giving all of their albums several tries. Aquarius has probably been my favorite of the first three, but even that one struggles to get me going consistently.

No idea why this is the case, but the new album seems to me so much better. Not sure why it should be more suited to my tastes, but I'm loving this. The four song run from 1985 to Earthrise has got to be one of my favorite ~35 minutes of Haken, and it's not even close. Lapse comes on and I just have to dance.

[The Letter M]

Echoing the sentiments towards "1985" here, and as a kid that grew up with the Transformers of the 80's, and especially the 1986 film, the Vince DiCola inspired sounds of "1985" tickle a nostalgic spot deep inside my musical mind and soul. Everything about the song is just so retro but so fresh, too.

This album is SO different but SO good, as solid as The Mountain and Visions for me. These three albums are all stellar, all the while being different enough from each other. It'll be interesting to see what Haken does next, but for now, I am extremely happy with their output so far.

-Marc.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

I guess I should get this album soon, since the two songs I've heard just keep growing on me.

One day.

[mike099]

As others have stated - 1985

Two things came to me on the first listen.  The band is really tight(in a good way) and the drumming is so damn good.

I envy those that will get to see the band live on this tour.  I live in Tennessee, so my only shot would probably be Atlanta, if the come to the states and the southeast.

[King Postwhore]

I hear the dynamics on the toms here and wish DT would go this way. First listen and blown away.

[volwrath]

Has anyone decoded the Morse code at the end of Bound by Gravity yet? Which by the way is a phenomenal way to end the album.

Edit wingof war on reddit states Okay, first part of Affinity.exe is .- ..-. ..-. .. -. .. - -.-- which spells out... you guessed it, AFFINITY. After the other ambient noises kick in it's hard to hear. But it for sure starts with .... .- (which spells out HA so we can assume it spells out HAKEN).

Gravity is weird. I'll update as I go. It looks like the right channel is slowed down morse too.

>AFFINITY HAKEN *LM985 AFFINITY HAKEN *LM98 HAFFINITY HAKEN

Basically it keeps repeating HAKEN AFFINITY and LM98 (I think) on the left channel. Right channel looks like morse, but I can't find a pattern in it. Maybe someone better at listening can pick it out. I've only practiced enough to pick out words at about 7 wmp, so this was super challenging to pick up by ear.

* for unsure

[Nick]

They are already confirmed for ProgPower in Atlanta this September. They will play other dates, just no clue if any will be closer to you.

[Crow]

have they put up an official album stream of this yet tho
okay i guess i'll use spotify for this one specific thing o well

[Bolsters]

Yeah this isn't bad.

[Crow]

it's pretty solid.
i'm not immediately in love with it like i was with the mountain but i'll probably like it a lot more if i give it a few listens, which i won't be doing until i actually have the cd

[Benedettosoxfan]

I feel bad for everyone that isn't enjoying Bound by Gravity. One listen in and it's probably the one that grabbed me the most and made me completely drop what I was doing. Absolutely gorgeous song on the first listen and I can only imagine it'll get better as I get more familiar with it. Also, I feel like the opening for the Architect would fit really well with the beginning few minutes of Illumination Theory.

[The Astonished]

Bound By Gravity is probably the most beautiful thing I heard in a long time. It's absolutely blowing me away.

[jammindude]

Agreed. 

Only have one spin on it so far.   But I went back and listened to 1985 twice more.   LOVE that track.

I was expecting to like The Architect a lot more than I did.   Everyone's been clamoring about it, and it is the epic track, so I figured it was a no-brainer that I would be blown away by it.   But the first time through didn't really grab me the way I thought it would.   There were parts I really loved, so maybe that track just has to sink in.

For me personally, I've never heard this particular mix of influences on a progressive metal album before.  I love it when bands are in their prime and break new ground in the genre.   This is a really great album.    For personal reasons, The Mountain will always be my favorite.  The lyrical themes just hit me at a very important time, and so that album is always just going to be deeply personal.   But Affinity is musically entering territory that changes up the landscape.  I think it's going to end up being a very important album...

[mike099]

Agreed. 

Only have one spin on it so far.   But I went back and listened to 1985 twice more.   LOVE that track.

I was expecting to like The Architect a lot more than I did.   Everyone's been clamoring about it, and it is the epic track, so I figured it was a no-brainer that I would be blown away by it.   But the first time through didn't really grab me the way I thought it would.   There were parts I really loved, so maybe that track just has to sink in.

For me personally, I've never heard this particular mix of influences on a progressive metal album before.  I love it when bands are in their prime and break new ground in the genre.   This is a really great album.    For personal reasons, The Mountain will always be my favorite.  The lyrical themes just hit me at a very important time, and so that album is always just going to be deeply personal.   But Affinity is musically entering territory that changes up the landscape.  I think it's going to end up being a very important album...

Great post.  The Mountain is also special to me lyrically and I love the vocals.  The epic is growing for me and those first 3 minutes are just golden.  I did not expect to like Bound by Gravity, but the song is just beautiful. 

[ariich]

I was expecting to like The Architect a lot more than I did.   Everyone's been clamoring about it, and it is the epic track, so I figured it was a no-brainer that I would be blown away by it.   But the first time through didn't really grab me the way I thought it would.   There were parts I really loved, so maybe that track just has to sink in.

Well, it's the longest track on the album, so it's obvious that there will be hype about it. But after many many listens to the album, it's definitely lower in the rankings for me. But really that's only because the album is just so damn good.

The other thing about The Architect is that structurally it's similar to Falling Back to Earth, but it's just not quite as brilliant.

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

The Architect isn't close to being the best track on this album. It's great and it has some fudgin' amazing moments (the outro is spectacular) but at times I feel like there's too much going on. I couldn't help but think on A Nightmare to Remember on that interlude as a 'what could've been'  .

As I mentioned earlier, I think the best two tracks in the album are 1985 and Bound by Gravity. 1985 is one of those songs I can play continuously and still be amazed by how fresh and how inspired it sounds. Bound by Gravity is an amazing album closer and such a nice breath of fresh air! I love the ending where the full band comes in with the epic melody played by Diego.

I really dig how they explored electronics in this release, but at moments I feel like it was too much. Also, this is gonna sound weird for some but I miss the vocal approach of Aquarius/Visions/Mountain a little bit. A lot of the vocal melodies sound super imposed to me because well, let's be honest, most of these songs are in odd time signatures, but I miss the good ole simple melody that can get stuck in my head for days (which is why I love Bound by Gravity so much). The Djenty influence on the rhythms throughout most songs are pretty cool but they can't be so easy to handle. This isn't an album I can put any day/anywhere like The Mountain, but it's an album I will definitely cherish in the days to come.

Affinity doesn't reach the God-tier level The Mountain reached, but it's quite high!

[gazinwales]

Affinity is the first Haken album to click for me.
I've tried many times to get into them, but alas no success.
Normally I wouldn't have bothered with this album, but I saw a number of reviews mentioning
Yes '90125' album and comparing it to that classic album.
My eyes lit up when I saw this, 90125 is one of my fave albums and any comparison is worth my attention.

[snowdog]

I feel bad for everyone that isn't enjoying Bound by Gravity. One listen in and it's probably the one that grabbed me the most and made me completely drop what I was doing. Absolutely gorgeous song on the first listen and I can only imagine it'll get better as I get more familiar with it. Also, I feel like the opening for the Architect would fit really well with the beginning few minutes of Illumination Theory.

I haven't checked this thread in a long time, but I've listened to the album quite a few times now.  I was totally expecting to see everyone rave about this song.  This song is the highlight of the album for me.  But then again I'm a sucker for albums that have repeated themes in them, so having the rhythm from Initiate come in with that majestic ending just makes me love it. 

Overall a great album.  I thought it was OK on the first listen, but definitely has grown for me on each listen.

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

For me, it's kinda refreshing that for once the best song in the album isn't the epic.  Nice shift of a prog paradigm. (SEE WHAT I DID THERE LOL SO FUNNEY)