Let's get started!We're starting off with Haken's first album. Released in 2010, I'm pretty sure back then the band had no idea that they would be regarded as a major force in the progressive metal scene just 5-6 years later. While Aquarius sounds a lot different from the band's latter output, there's still a lot of stuff to hear here that the band hasn't quite abandoned yet on their newer releases. Although Haken rarely revisits this album in live shows, the L-1VE album released earlier this year, recorded in Amsterdam (I was there!), features 'Aquamedley', which contains parts of every single song on Aquarius in chronological order, except for Sun. If you have never heard Aquarius (please do so), this might be a nice place to start.
I first came upon Aquarius in 2010 as well and pretty much loved it from the start. I can imagine that if you became a fan when Haken released The Mountain, or even Affinity, that Aquarius sounds a little 'dated', and frankly, it does. That doesn't stop it from being my personal favourite Haken album. This being the first thing I discovered from them (and they had nothing else at the time), probably helps. Let's see how these songs fare against the band's newer material?
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How does the voting work?
You vote for your least favourite. The one with the most votes gets eliminated every round. The top 2 advances to the Finals, the song in third place goes to Consolation, while the song in fourth place goes to a special 'Play-Offs'-round. See the Survivor's Main Thread (linked to below) to see how all of this plays out.
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Aquarius Results:1.
2.3.4.5.
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Haken Survivor Main Thread---
My first vote goes to Eternal Rain. Not a bad song by any means, but easily the weakest here, if you ask me.
One day for each round.