As one of the biggest Haken fans here, and certainly the longest standing, there's a bunch of stuff I'd like to respond to while I can before we get to results and move onto the next band.
I really enjoyed my first couple of listens. The music is really good, the hate on the vocals was overrated, and the songs were pretty strong.
As before, absolutely delighted with this.
There's a reason Dream Theater are the standard bearers of this genre. Mostly, it's Dream Theater's musicality. They are melodically superior while still displaying virtuosic chops.
Tastes is tastes, for sure. Personally, I find Haken's melodic approach more interesting (or perhaps better to say more consistently interesting) than DT's. DT's approach is somewhat rooted in classic rock (I don't mean that in a reductive way at all and obviously they bring in lots of other influences), whereas Haken's leans more into both melancholy and, for want of a better word, unusual territories. Some of their big, sad choruses are just so beautiful and get me more than any DT song. But some are less immediate and even as a huge fan I'm not normally sold straight away, but I basically always completely come around after listening enough.
And for me, they have a vocalist that pulls emotion out of me.
1. Seems like Ross is a lightning rod around here. The positive.. I think he sounds fine. He's an excellent vocalist with range and variation. I don't have an issue with his voice.
BUT... I'm not saying he doesn't sing with passion, because I think he does, but for the most part, it's not really drawing it out of me.
Again tastes is tastes, but it's worth noting that the submissions in this round have been very focused towards the heavier end of their music. You've got Deathless and Ross sounds good there but his voice wasn't as strong on those first two albums. But The Mountain and Affinity in particular have some gentler and more delicate moments and I think he delivers them with a ton of emotion.
2. The keyboards... Again, my point of reference is again, Dream Theater. No one is more wanky than Jordan, but 95% of the time, he's doing what is right for the song. I think of the brilliant piano outro to Transcending Time. There's nothing even remotely as moving in these songs. As much as Jordan stands out, his accompaniment is amazing. With Haken, I feel like this guy has no idea how to...blend. I don't mind keyboards in my music, but there's a tastefulness that is lacking generally. There ARE exceptions to this though. But generally..
And I am frankly not a fan of electronic elements in my music. 7:15 of ITNOG is as much electronica as I want in my music.
I can understand this. I'm not a huge fan of Diego, but I do love his sound design work on Affinity. But if you're not into the electronics, I can see how even that might not appeal consistently.
3. I'm hearing low tuned guitars. That is grating.
There's a mix but yeah they do often use 7- and 8-string guitars. Quite a modern style I guess. I have no problem with it.
4. The drumming is fantastic, as is the bassist.
They've had two bassists, both awesome, and yeah Ray is a great drummer and has got better and better with each album.
When I first sampled Haken (courtesy of some posts way back when by Arich), I thought they sounded interesting enough that I went out and bought their first album, Aquarius, reckoning that they'd be right in my wheelhouse. Then I listened to the album.
For me, the music seemed to meander pointlessly. To use a classic TAC phrase, "the music didn't really go anywhere". I didn't hear any songs, just arrangements (extremely well-played, I'll grant) that moved from section to section without any point of reference for me grasp.
That was definitely an issue with Aquarius, and it's the main reason it's easily my least favourite of theirs. The first three songs in particular just don't really have any structure and they just all run from one to the next. Their songwriting is much more structured and focused now, especially from The Mountain onwards (apart from the Messiah Complex suite but that was intentionally bonkers).
I have to say though that on this point, I don't really get the DT comparison. Taking in their whole catalogues, I think DT have done a lot more of that meandering in their songwriting. Perhaps rarely as much so as those three opening songs from Aquarius, but they do it more often IMO.
Topic: The TAC Roulette V.5...DTF Faves..WTF Am I Missing?? MastoDONE! (Read 68349 times)