Haken v. new single Nightingale (April 26)

[Implode]

I've seen them play Cockroach King live.

6 times.

.You are a whore.

I prefer the term disciple.

More like disciple of the cockroach, choking on the roach of phallusy

[ariich]

Painting a pig......

Well,  Rich out whores us all!

Nick is slowly catching up.

[ariich]

Last night's gig at The Garage in London was just so damn good.

The sound was decent enough at the back - apparently it was terrible right at the front, and the guitars were barely audible. This is why it's always better to stand back a bit.

Performances were solid.

Setlist was pretty amazing (I won't post it here because spoilers, but it can be seen easily on setlist.fm).

The most exciting thing though was how big, and enthusiastic, the crowd was. The queue was stretching up the road when doors opened - something I've never seen at a Haken show before, and the venue was pretty packed once Haken were on stage. And the crowd were totally into it - serious amounts of singing along and throwing hands in the air, which is hard enough to get at a prog gig in the UK, but definitely a big step up for Haken.

Highlights (with SPOILERS), which incidentally cover possibly my three favourite Haken songs:
 - Deathless was beautiful, the instrumental second half really got me emotionally.
 - Endless Knot was outrageously good, and seeing 600 prog fans dance to the dubstep breakdown from friggin' awesome.
 - Falling Back to Earth reminded me that, as much as I absolutely adore Affinity, nothing on it quite matches up.

[Train of Naught]

So, setlist spoilers ahead from me too guys.

- I'm not a big fan of Deathless but it seems they plan to keep on playing it. It's still an awesome song but I don't like it nearly as much as the other Visions song of the same length, Shapeshifter.

- I thought they were balancing out the setlists across all albums? Aquarius only had one song the last 2 days and Visions had 2. I love The Mountain so you don't see me complaining, but it doesn't seem balanced at all to me.

- Cockroach King AND Falling Back To Earth played on both nights!

[ariich]

Yeah, it wasn't even slightly balanced. Half the songs were from Affinity, a quarter from The Mountain, and the rest spread across the remaining albums.

[Train of Naught]

Yeah, seems like Crystallised as the encore is going to be a trend too, that atleast slightly balances it out. Though it's probably my least favorite of the 'epics' and I would love to see Celestial Elixir live, but I doubt it'll happen today.

[ariich]

Yeah, Crystallised and The Architect are definitely my least favourites of their "epics", and they take up quite a lot of the set. Both have lots of great stuff in them though, and the rest of the set was pretty spectacular.

[Nekov]

Yeah, Crystallised and The Architect are definitely my least favourites of their "epics", and they take up quite a lot of the set. Both have lots of great stuff in them though, and the rest of the set was pretty spectacular.

[jakepriest]

Falling Back To Earth has got to be the most overrated Haken song imo. I mean it's pretty good, but nowhere near the top of the album for me.
Celestial Elixir and The Architect are probably the best epics so far.

[Evermind]

I think FBTE is their best song. Awesome from start to finish.

[jammindude]

Crystalized, to me, is not only their best song, but one of the best and most cohesive epics I've ever heard!

[devieira73]

Crystalized, to me, is not only their best song, but one of the best and most cohesive epics I've ever heard!

This. And surprises me how few people here has this taste/opinion. Well, of course, that's fine!

[ariich]

Crystalized, to me, is not only their best song, but one of the best and most cohesive epics I've ever heard!

This. And surprises me how few people here has this taste/opinion. Well, of course, that's fine!

Obviously different tastes and all. I can understand why some people love it so much (I still think it's great), but "cohesive"? No way. I mean, for the most part yeah, it's going so well, but the wacky instrumental towards the end is just so out of place, even by Haken standards, and that's something that rarely bothers me.

[BlackInk]

I think the weakest part of Crystallised is the finale. It feels a bit too much like epic finale just for the sake of epic finale because long songs are "supposed" to end that way. The instrumental section doesn't bother me at all. I absolutely love the rest though.

[jammindude]

 It might be a bit cliché, but those types of things became cliché for a reason. When they are well done, they are perfect! And the ending of Crystalized is perfect!

[425]

I did not like Crystallised at all for a while, but when Restoration clicked for me a few weeks ago, I came to really like it. I still don't know where I'd rank it among the epics, though. Pretty much every song Haken has made is really good, so it wouldn't matter much where I ranked it if I wasn't a DTF member. 

[Elite]

Well, that was awesome!! I only just came home.
More details later, including the ToN/Elite meetup. Oh, the setlist was pretty good too

[KevShmev]

Crystallised has some really good moments, and the ending is nice, but as a whole, it cannot touch Celestial Elixir.  I'm still not completely sold on the vast majority of this band's material, but that song is terrific.

[Implode]

Crystalized is one of my favorite Haken songs.

[BlackInk]

It might be a bit cliché, but those types of things became cliché for a reason. When they are well done, they are perfect!

Definetely, but I don't think it's perfect in Crystallised. The epic ending to The Architect may be a perfect epic ending for me.

Still love Crystallised as a whole though, and it's still in my top 3 Haken songs.

[Train of Naught]

Saw Haken last night, damn! Good show folks.

Highlights were the ending of The Architect, during the Initiate reprise, that's gotta be one of the most epic Haken moments. Cockroach King goes without saying, brilliant song and great live.

In the end I'm glad they didn't balance the setlist too much because I got to hear my favorite songs off every album (except Visions), wouldn't care for one or two Affinity omissions, Earthrise or something, but since it's the affinitour it's understandable.

As it was kinda the first prog concert I've been to I had no idea what the crowds were like. Apparently a bit more passive and kind of immersed into the music or something? Had to get used to this but I slowly adapted.

Aaand I met Elite during the break between Special Providence (these guys have one hell of a keyboard player) and Haken was great to meet up. Those band video's really come in handy, otherwise I'd have never recognized you

Crystallised has some really good moments, and the ending is nice, but as a whole, it cannot touch Celestial Elixir.

Same here, I loved the acapella section live (listening to it at home I don't really care for it) and the chorus is a-ma-zing but I have a hard time listening to the whole thing without losing attention. Celestial Elixir on the other hand...

[Estiui]

Falling Back To Earth has got to be the most overrated Haken song imo. I mean it's pretty good, but nowhere near the top of the album for me.
Celestial Elixir and The Architect are probably the best epics so far.

WAT

I also think it's probably their best song. Powerful verses, celestial chorus, and that second half of the song... 10/10 would listen forever.

By the way, I've one question for those who have already been to one of their gigs. Seeing that Haken play for around 2 hours, how much do the other bands play? At what time starts and ends the whole thing?

[ariich]

Arkentype played about 30 mins, Special Providence maybe 45? Bit hard to tell with the latter, as their music gets a bit samey after a while.

[Elite]

Train, you missed the special encore

[Train of Naught]

I know, I can't believe it man.. still kicking myself for this, I just couldn't stay any longer as I just barely caught the last train to Amsterdam . Part of me thought Crystallised was the last song too as it was the case for the other shows but I knew they hadn't done an encore yet. I just wish they swapped them around, Celestial Elixir is my favorite epic and Crystallised is probably my least favorite.

Apparently I wasn't alone in this, or maybe some people were just tired, but really didn't expect the entire show to last longer than 4 hours.

[Nick]

Well, now I can finally look forward to hearing Celestial Elixir if things work out! I'll catch several shows on the US tour, so even if it's not played every night, I'm hopeful.

[Thematt202]

I really have tried, but I just can't get into this band.  The music is mostly amazing, but the vocals are so flat and droning, that it just kills it for me.  I can't seem to identify any real hooks or melodies, even in the choruses. 

Endless Knot is great, but it needs a big melody to contrast against the djenty parts.  1985 has an amazing keyboard and guitar solo and I love the ominous building chord sequence that comes afterwards.  The rest of the song just bores me though.

I can't stress enough how much I want to like this band, but I just can't do it.  I've known them since the Aquarius days (Celestial Elixir is great) and always come back to them periodically to see whether anything has changed...

[jakepriest]

It took a VERY long time for me to get into Haken's vocals, but now I adore Ross.
imo Endless Knot has enough melody. It's a perfect song and one of my favourites from Haken.
I agree that the first half of 1985 is pretty lackluster compared to the second one, but is it boring? I wouldn't say so.

I totally get why some people wouldn't like Haken though. To be honest the point you have brought up is what defines Leprous for me. I can't stand the vocals, the music is pretty good at times but ultimately most of the songs I've heard I found boring. 

[Thematt202]

I'm gonna keep trying, because I know the problem must be me, not them!  To be honest, having noted the bands that have their own threads on this subforum may explain the Haken thing for me.  I'm coming at them from a Dream Theater, Sonata Arctica, Circus Maximus, Seventh Wonder angle and it seems most of their fans are more into Steven Wilson, Opeth, Periphery, etc.

I suppose my musical centre leans more towards the melodic metal sort of stuff. 

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

The setlist looks amazing. I would trade Cockroach King (which, although I like very much, has been quite overplayed IMO) for another song off The Mountain or from Aquarius and it would be ready to go.

[Mosh]

Cockroach King is probably going to go down as one of their signature songs that gets played nearly every concert.

[Elite]

It already is.

[jakepriest]

Makes me want to go see Haken that much more

[jammindude]

Cockroach King is probably going to go down as one of their signature songs that gets played nearly every concert.

For a long time, people thought that this was going to be Pull Me Under with DT.   But then, one tour, they just didn't.   And no one blinked an eye.

[Mosh]

I can see that, except I'm not thinking of Cockroach King as a "hit" as much as just a song they really like and seems to go down well live. I'm thinking more along the lines of Hallowed Be Thy Name by Iron Maiden. That's not to say they'll play it at every concert like Maiden does, but I could see it eventually becoming their most played song.