Haken v. new single Nightingale (April 26)

[Crow]

there are many albums where the epic isn't the best song, like octavarium

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

there are many albums where the epic isn't the best song, like octavarium

no u

[King Postwhore]

there are many albums where the epic isn't the best song, like octavarium

[Crow]

yes, this is the reaction i was hoping to get
(i'm not kidding tho)

[King Postwhore]

Were playing too.  Everybody has their personal favorites.



BUT STILL!!

[Nick]

I will say this, These Walls offers the best 7-minute chunk of music on the album, but Octavarium is still the better song.

[Scorpion]

These Walls, Sacrificed Sons and The Root of All Evil are all miles ahead of Octavarium

Also Affinity is amazing. Contrary to other people, I'm really loving The Architect, definitely in my Top 3 on the album, along with 1985 and either Earthrise or Bound by Gravity, depending on how I'm feeling from day to day. But really, the whole album (aside from Lapse, which I have trouble remembering much about, sadly) is just stunning. Not sure if it's as good as The Mountain, but it's definitely a worthy follow-up.

Tentative ranking:

1. 1985
2. The Architect
3. Bound by Gravity
4. Earthrise
5. The Endless Knot
6. Red Giant
7. Initiate
8. Lapse
9. affinity.exe

I guess the middle ground might be subject to change, both the Top 2 and the bottom are pretty much locked in.

[King Postwhore]

This album is just phenomenal.

[Train of Naught]

Sacrificed Sons and The Root of All Evil are all miles ahead of Octavarium

TROAE isn't miles ahead for me, but overall I agree with this statement.

For me, it's kinda refreshing that for once the best song in the album isn't the epic.

Wait The Architect isn't the fan favorite here? I love it! Easily my favorite, got better with every listen for me too.

[jammindude]

After 3 or 4 more spins today, I'm liking it more and more.   And Initiate (which I was extremely lukewarm on at first) is quickly becoming a favorite.

Still not feeling The Architect.   I love parts of it.  I'm sure it will continue to grow on me. 

The strength of the mellower tracks are what's really impressing me.  Lapse, Red Giant, and Bound By Gravity are just GORGEOUS pieces of music.

[m0hawk]

Didn't expect to be alone in saying this, but The Architect is now God-Tier for me, along the likes of Visions, Celestial Elixir, FBTE. Like every epic, it feels "meh" on the first few spins. But when it clicks? Sweet baby Jesus! Also, PHENOMENAL ending. Everything from the guitar solo reprise of Initiate's chorus to the end is just 

A prediction of how the beginning and end of setlists are going to look like:

0. affinity.exe
1. Initiate
....
12. The Architect
---
13. Bound By Gravity

[Estiui]

A prediction of how the beginning and end of setlists are going to look like:

0. affinity.exe
1. Initiate
....
12. The Architect
---
13. Bound By Gravity

The beginning seems pretty obvious, but please DON'T end with Bound by Gravity. I'd say more, don't play it 

I'd love to hear something like:

0. affinity.exe
1. Initiate
2. 1985
3. Drowning in the Flood
4. Portals
5. The Endless Knot
6. Crystallised
7. Atlas Stone
8. Pareidolia
9. Earthrise
10. The Architect
11. Falling Back to Earth
12. Visions/Celestial Elixir

[EraVulgaris]

The beginning seems pretty obvious, but please DON'T end with Bound by Gravity. I'd say more, don't play it 

.... I love Bound by Gravity 

[KevShmev]

Checked out some of the new songs online, and I suspect my experience with this will be the same as always with Haken: my lack of fondness for the singer is making it difficult to grab me at first, but I will eventually come around to liking some of it.  The music definitely sounds really good in that songs I listened to.

I honestly hate Cockroach King.

Looks like I am not alone.

[EraVulgaris]

Checked out some of the new songs online, and I suspect my experience with this will be the same as always with Haken: my lack of fondness for the singer is making it difficult to grab me at first, but I will eventually come around to liking some of it.  The music definitely sounds really good in that songs I listened to.

There is a complete instrumental version of the record included in this double CD version if you dig the music. 

[KevShmev]

I appreciate the link , but instrumental music of a CD that normally has vocals doesn't really interest me.

Plus, I don't like Haken that much to spend that kind of money on a double CD.

Plus part II, I don't buy CDs anymore (except on special occasions).

[King Postwhore]

I appreciate the link , but instrumental music of a CD that normally has vocals doesn't really interest me.

Plus, I don't like Haken that much to spend that kind of money on a double CD.

Plus part II, I don't buy CDs anymore (except on special occasions).

You mean like the $11.88 I spent on it?

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

The beginning seems pretty obvious, but please DON'T end with Bound by Gravity. I'd say more, don't play it 

.... I love Bound by Gravity 

Most of us do. 

[KevShmev]

I appreciate the link , but instrumental music of a CD that normally has vocals doesn't really interest me.

Plus, I don't like Haken that much to spend that kind of money on a double CD.

Plus part II, I don't buy CDs anymore (except on special occasions).

You mean like the $11.88 I spent on it?

Exactly.

Fine, remove that from my post and my other two points still stand. 

[King Postwhore]

 

[Nel_Annette]

I'd happily buy the two-disc version if it wasn't a stupid digipak. Jewel case for me, baby!

[me7]

I ended up preordering the digipak because I didn't know a jewel case existed

[Nearmyth]

This is such a great album! Though the music isn't nearly as emotional as The Mountain's, which I felt would be the case, the songwriting is more mature and concise and is their most musically genius album yet. I'm not sure if I can put it above The Mountain yet, but time will tell.

If I had to rate the songs it would probably be:

Excellent:
1. 1985
2. The Architect
3. Lapse

Great:
4. The Endless Knot
5. Bound By Gravity
6. Affinity.exe/Initiate

Good:
7. Earthrise
8. Red Giant

Not a stinker on the album, at least on first impressions. Also the first Haken album where I don't feel urged to skip any songs
It took until 2016 for me to actually like and appreciate The Mountain as much as I do, but Affinity I enjoyed from the first listen.

[Heretic]

Yeah, that's a good way to put it, The Mountain definitely feels more emotional. I think that there are definitely moments here which reach as high or higher than The Mountain, though, but I'd still rate The Mountain higher.

I agree with the sentiment that the "epics" aren't necessarily the best songs here this go around. While 1985 and The Architect are amazing, I find myself coming back to Earthrise, The Endless Knot, and Bound by Gravity the most.

And ariich, despite Nick's interception here's your high five returned kind of late! *\o Earthrise definitely stands as my favorite.

[senecadawg2]

I dunno... Early days still, but I think this is better than The Mountain and more emotional, too. It just keeps getting better

[EraVulgaris]

I dunno... Early days still, but I think this is better than The Mountain and more emotional, too. It just keeps getting better

I love The Mountain, but I appreciate that Affinity seems to be a little smaller in scale.

[Cordez]

10:17 of The Architect sounds like it was taken straight from an Opeth song.

Yeah it sounds like its directly taken from Drapery Falls

[Fritzinger]

I am absolutely blown away by how great this album is. I dare to say I am more blown away than by The Astonishing (there I said it, now you are allowed to slaughter me). The Mountain needed some time, and in the end kicked DT12 from the throne of the album of the year 2013. Affinity had the Aquarius Effect on me: I am so speechless. There is just so much going on! The Architect, MY GAWD. 1985 is one hell of beast as well. I love the Dubstep-Metal part in Endless Knot, as well as the part that sounds like a snippet out of a House-Set right before the beat drops (I don't like House dough).

For anyone wanting to find out about reprises and things to discover in Affinity, stop reading here:
Has anyone noticed the two Initiate reprises in the album? The chorus comes again at the end of The Architect, and the first rhythm pattern can be found at the end of Bound By Gravity before the coda I think. Also, I noticed the "Shifting frame by frame" reference from 1985 in Endless Knot.
BTW, "frame by frame" - King Crimson anyone? Together with the Neal Jack & Me guitars in the verse? Cool reference.


I can't believe that this has not been discussed more:

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

This is VERY INTERESTING in my opinion! And it makes Affinity a lot more sympathetic. You can see so much love for details here. AWESOME. I would love to know what LM98 could mean.

[Zydar]

I am absolutely blown away by how great this album is. I dare to say I am more blown away than by The Astonishing (there I said it, now you are allowed to slaughter me).

I MUCH prefer Affinity over TA, so you'll get no slaughter from me

We're talking Album Of The Year material right here.

[kirksnosehair]

I went on Amazon.com on Friday afternoon and bought the MP3 version - it was only available in the deluxe version (all songs with and without vocals) if you wanted MP3 but that was fine, it was $3.00 more than a regular album but I'm cool with that.  $3.00 for an instrumental version of the album -which I will listen to- is more than fair in my mind.  And a good way for them to make a little extra scratch, which I'm also OK with.


So, anyway, this is a band that I've really wanted to love but just never could seem to figure out what all of the hype was about.  Now, don't get me wrong here.  There is no doubt that this is an extremely talented group of musicians.  My biggest beef with them has been that I always felt like that quirky/complexity thing was being milked a little too much and the result was the albums are very, very dense and take a very long time to sink in.  Plus, for me at least, I need a little more emphasis on melody rather than complexity in order to connect with a piece of music on an emotional level.  I found that while I very much enjoyed listening to Aquarius, Visions, The Mountain and the Restoration EP, I never really connected with any of the songs and I am still hard pressed to name any tracks on any of those albums.  I rarely reach for them. 


Despite all of this, I still admire their skill and talent and enjoy their music enough that spending a few bucks on a download version of their album is the least I can do to support a good band that's putting out this kind of music.  And to my pleasant surprise, after two spins I've gotta say that this one is definitely going to be my favorite of the bunch.  The vocalist has improved with each release, and that's good because I've generally considered the vocals to be the weakest element with this band.  But with this new album I think they did a much better job of keeping the vocals more interesting, more melodic and less....I don't know...angular?  The melodies are smoother and they built some nice harmonies in a lot of places that I've really not heard a lot of on previous albums.


To me, the mark of a good musician is one who can play their instrument and not get distracted or upset by criticism.  The mark of a great musician is one who takes criticism as assistance and uses it to propel themselves forward.   I'd put Haken -and particularly Ross Jennings in the latter category. 


It's far too soon for me to rate it, but if my gut is right - and it usually is - this one's going to be my favorite of theirs.

[Crow]

the astonishing is incredibly meh so i'm already pretty sure i like this one more even after just one listen

[Tomislav95]

You'd get slaughtered if you said The Astonishing is better

[seasonsinthesky]

Excellent:
1. 1985
2. The Architect
3. Lapse

Great:
4. The Endless Knot
5. Bound By Gravity
6. Affinity.exe/Initiate

Good:
7. Earthrise
8. Red Giant

"Earthrise" and RG are actually two of my favourites on the album right off the bat. The first part of E and the second part of RG in particular are up there with the band's finest moments.

[Dublagent66]

the astonishing is incredibly meh so i'm already pretty sure i like this one more even after just one listen

Absolutely!  Just listened to it for the first time earlier.  Love it!

You'd get slaughtered if you said The Astonishing is better

Yeah, because Affinity slaughters TA! 

[Tomislav95]

Yeah, because Affinity slaughters TA! 

I wouldn't say that myself because I love TA but Haken is probably more loved than DT on DTF