Haken v. new single Nightingale (April 26)

[goo-goo]

Does anybody know if the European shirts are tighter than US shirts? Would love to get the Haken Virus shirt and usually wear XL but I'm not sure if the sizing varies compared to the US shirts.

Where are you seeing shirts? I don't seen them on the CMUS link.

On the Omerch website on the Haken store. Hence my questions about European shirt sizing.
https://www.omerch.eu/shop/haken/

[Mebert78]

Love the song!  Looking forward to this album!

[Ben_Jamin]

Does anybody know if the European shirts are tighter than US shirts? Would love to get the Haken Virus shirt and usually wear XL but I'm not sure if the sizing varies compared to the US shirts.

Where are you seeing shirts? I don't seen them on the CMUS link.

On the Omerch website on the Haken store. Hence my questions about European shirt sizing.
https://www.omerch.eu/shop/haken/

Oh, haha. I would have done the bundle if the shirts were yellow instead of black. I'm gonna get the 2 CD from CM.

[Nick]

I'm very much excited for Virus, but that being said, if this album is as heavy and guitar driven as the single would suggest I really hope the next album returns to the spacier feel of The Mountain or the more keyboard driven feel of the debut. I basically know for a fact I won't get my wish on the latter, but do think there is some hope for the former.

[Buddyhunter1]

Am I the only one?

[425]

I'm very much excited for Virus, but that being said, if this album is as heavy and guitar driven as the single would suggest I really hope the next album returns to the spacier feel of The Mountain or the more keyboard driven feel of the debut. I basically know for a fact I won't get my wish on the latter, but do think there is some hope for the former.

I feel the same way. I feel confident by now that pretty much whatever Haken tries will have a strong chance of succeeding, but I'd be lying if I said the direction they've taken since The Mountain is emphasizing the elements of their sound I like best.

[emtee]

I knew when Aquarius came out that these guys were going to
take off. Excellent band, consistent and very prolific. If I had to choose
a current top 3 bands, it would be: IQ, Tesseract and Haken.

Cool song. Heavy  too!

[jammindude]

Guys....the next album needs to be green.

[cramx3]

  I say white for sauerkraut personally, but I've got no objection over pickle green

[The Letter M]

Guys....the next album needs to be green.

I mean, Affinity was green-themed. Like I said above, it'd be neat if they followed Virus with a four-letter V-titled album colored in blue, paying homage to King Crimson's 80s albums Discipline, Beat, and Three Of A Perfect Pair, especially given the band's King Crimson influences here and there.

-Marc.

[goo-goo]

I knew when Aquarius came out that these guys were going to
take off. Excellent band, consistent and very prolific. If I had to choose
a current top 3 bands, it would be: IQ, Tesseract and Haken.

Cool song. Heavy  too!

Emtee..Check out the band Vola. Their last album, "Applause from a Distant Crowd" is a masterpiece in my opinion. I would put Vola up there with your list.

[devieira73]

I'm very much excited for Virus, but that being said, if this album is as heavy and guitar driven as the single would suggest I really hope the next album returns to the spacier feel of The Mountain or the more keyboard driven feel of the debut. I basically know for a fact I won't get my wish on the latter, but do think there is some hope for the former.

I believe that it will be a lot of diversity on this album, from Haken's Facebook:
"Once again, Adam ‘Nolly’ Getgood has mixed what is perhaps the most eclectic Haken album to date, with the 7 tracks revealing hints of influences from multiple genres, all intertwined with Haken’s own recognisable sound."

[JayOctavarium]

So

I absolutely love the single. Mind you I've only listened 1.5 times... But... Yea.

Looking forward to this release!

[Nick]

I'm very much excited for Virus, but that being said, if this album is as heavy and guitar driven as the single would suggest I really hope the next album returns to the spacier feel of The Mountain or the more keyboard driven feel of the debut. I basically know for a fact I won't get my wish on the latter, but do think there is some hope for the former.

I believe that it will be a lot of diversity on this album, from Haken's Facebook:
"Once again, Adam ‘Nolly’ Getgood has mixed what is perhaps the most eclectic Haken album to date, with the 7 tracks revealing hints of influences from multiple genres, all intertwined with Haken’s own recognisable sound."

I've read far too many press releases (and even worse promo junkets that come with advance music) to put any faith in that, unfortunately.

[ariich]

Yeah I'm not sure about that particular phrase, and if you look at the rest of the sentence it clearly says "hints of influences from multiple genres". So I wouldn't expect anything too wacky or off-the-wall.

[Northern Lion]

Just listened to the new song.  Holy crap that's heavy!  I am sooooooo excited for this album. 

And can't wait for the rest. 

[kaos2900]

Love the new song. Already like it better than anything on Vector.

[Heretic]

Solid song, seems like the "straightforward" single song that every Haken album seems to have. Interested in hearing the 10-min track and the suite as well, personally I'm hoping it has a lot of differentiation and doesn't stick to one style a la Vector.

[TexansDT]

Prosthetic absolutely rips.  A well-needed dose of badassery this Friday afternoon!
 

[me7]

Good opener IMO, similar to Initiate and Good Doctor. Neither of these two past openers had me excited by themselves, but they work great in the context of their respective albums.

[emtee]

I knew when Aquarius came out that these guys were going to
take off. Excellent band, consistent and very prolific. If I had to choose
a current top 3 bands, it would be: IQ, Tesseract and Haken.

Cool song. Heavy  too!

Emtee..Check out the band Vola. Their last album, "Applause from a Distant Crowd" is a masterpiece in my opinion. I would put Vola up there with your list.

Thanks Bro. I know we have similar tastes. If you love it, I will too. I'll check it out for sure.

[Ben_Jamin]

Wait....is The Messiah Complex a split suite? Because, on their website, it lists Only Stars as track 7. The Messiah Complex parts are named under TMC as track 6.

I'm guessing it's not split.

Well, I guess I just had to look further down...

"Once again, Adam ‘Nolly’ Getgood has mixed what is perhaps the most eclectic Haken album to date, with the 7 tracks revealing hints of influences from multiple genres, all intertwined with Haken’s own recognisable sound"


Edit: Also, just found out that CMUS has now added a Yellow shirt package. Yay for me.

[Kwyjibo]

I'm pretty sure this will be good, so colour me excited.

[RoeDent]

Wait....is The Messiah Complex a split suite? Because, on their website, it lists Only Stars as track 7. The Messiah Complex parts are named under TMC as track 6.

I'm guessing it's not split.

Well, I guess I just had to look further down...

Begs the question why any band considers this, especially for a relatively short epic. It's not like it's over 30 minutes, or the only song on the disc.

[The Letter M]

Wait....is The Messiah Complex a split suite? Because, on their website, it lists Only Stars as track 7. The Messiah Complex parts are named under TMC as track 6.

I'm guessing it's not split.

Well, I guess I just had to look further down...

Begs the question why any band considers this, especially for a relatively short epic. It's not like it's over 30 minutes, or the only song on the disc.

Considering the iTunes listing showed 11 tracks, with the 5 parts to TMC being split (with different and individual track lengths), I think it's safe to assume the discs will feature 11 tracks, but the band themselves will consider the album as having 7 songs.

This is something that always irks me, especially with prog bands - when artists/labels/press releases cannot differentiate between TRACKS and SONGS on an album. For example, if you consider "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence" as one song, then the album SDOIT has 6 songs, but the way the CD is pressed, it has 13 tracks (5 on disc one, 8 on disc two).

It seems like Haken have written and composed "The Messiah Complex" as one piece, but have split it on the CD/digital formats for one reason or another. I guess we'll have to wait about 2 months before we can hear it and see how it all plays out, but I suspect it to be something along the lines of SDOIT or Spock's Beard's "The Healing Colors Of Sound", could be considered one song, but might have clear separating points between each part, though they may crossfade into each other.

-Marc.

[ariich]

Structurally speaking, Spock's Healing Colours of Sound suite is probably a good comparator.

[Elite]

Have you actually heard it already?

[The Letter M]

Structurally speaking, Spock's Healing Colours of Sound suite is probably a good comparator.

Cool, now I have a good idea of how it might sound, at least, structurally. I've kept THCOS as one track on my CD-r and digital versions of the album for years, so I'll more than likely do the same for Haken's TMC, especially since the band insists that the album has 7 songs (which, oddly enough, is like Vector).

-Marc.

[ariich]

Have you actually heard it already?

[gzarruk]

Finally got to hear the song. The tone, playing and production are flawless

Not too crazy about the song, tho. I wasn't a big fan of Vector overall (LOVE some songs like Veil and Puzzle Box, but not the album as a whole) so I'm not too excited about them releasing a direct sequel to it, both stylistically and conceptually.

[devieira73]

Structurally speaking, Spock's Healing Colours of Sound suite is probably a good comparator.

Happy with this information! I've always heard Healing Colours more as one big (and very good) song.
So... if you are allowed, you could confirm to us if the album has a diversity of styles like it was said in the press release or it's more unidimensional like Vector? In your opinion, of course.

[ariich]

I didn't find Vector particularly uni-dimensional, so it's not like I'd be a very useful person to ask that question to. Overall it was tonally darker (or perhaps rather, more consistently dark) and more riff-driven than their previous albums, but I still find it pretty varied.

In terms of Virus, I couldn't say really, but I would just point to what the press release actually says. Firstly, as I said before, it says the album is "eclectic", with "hints of influences from multiple genres", which to be honest could describe any Haken album. Also, there's the quote from Hen: "...we wanted the two albums to be sonically connected. But ... it’s obvious that this album will be an evolution of the ‘Vector’ sound."

[devieira73]

Thanks for the response, ariich!
I also don’t  think Vector is an unidimensional album, but I think that it has less diversity than Aquarius, Mountain, Restored and Affinity. I agree, Vector is a darker album, which it’s different than to be relentless heavy.

[KevShmev]

Structurally speaking, Spock's Healing Colours of Sound suite is probably a good comparator.

Gotcha.  To me, Healing Colors is like Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence in that both sound like a bunch of short songs that all run together rather than an actual single song, and if the Haken song is like that, I will likely be fine with them being split up. 

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Was listening to Affinity today and honestly i've forgotten how much I enjoyed that album. No diss to Ross what so ever but I really enjoyed listening to the instrumental disc. The music is just superb filled with so much nuggets and details it could almost serve as a standalone instrumental album.