Haken thread v. "Evening With" tour (some set spoilers)

[Buddyhunter1]

The biggest problem I have with Aquarius is the title track. Obviously it's important to the narrative, but god damn is that song so drawn out and boring as hell. I'm glad the band has largely ditched the slow, gloomy 10 minute songs after that and Nocturnal Conspiracy - they don't really align with the band's strengths in my opinion.

I don't agree.  I would submit that the absence of songs like that is what the band is missing lately.  Songs that are allowed to breathe.

Or songs like The Architect that have the best of both worlds.

Nah the middle section of The Architect is probably the worst offender when it comes to drawing something out too long.

It's okay Ariich, you can keep saying this every time the song comes up, it doesn't make it any less horribly incorrect.

[KevShmev]

I like The Architect quite a bit, and I do like the middle section, but the ending is a bit underwhelming.  Basically, the best part of the song is the first minute.

[Implode]

I'm just glad they brought back the circus music. 

[jammindude]

I'm just glad they brought back the circus music. 

I prefer the term “Calliope music” but I agree.   

[Evermind]

The biggest problem I have with Aquarius is the title track. Obviously it's important to the narrative, but god damn is that song so drawn out and boring as hell. I'm glad the band has largely ditched the slow, gloomy 10 minute songs after that and Nocturnal Conspiracy - they don't really align with the band's strengths in my opinion.

I don't agree.  I would submit that the absence of songs like that is what the band is missing lately.  Songs that are allowed to breathe.

Or songs like The Architect that have the best of both worlds.

Nah the middle section of The Architect is probably the worst offender when it comes to drawing something out too long.

Agreed. Everything before the middle section is gold and then the song completely loses me.

I actually like Aquarium and Nocturnal Conspiracy way more than The Architect. I do wish the band did more of that (I haven't heard Fauna yet though).

[Nick]

Updated rankings you say...

1. The Mountain
2a. Virus
2b. Aquarius
4a. Vector
4b. Affinity
6. Fauna
7. Visions

Keep in mind, even with those bottom two, still really like them. With the new album there just isn't as much that I LOVE and that truly pulls me back to the album. I put it on and enjoy it a lot, but outside of my two favorite tracks, just don't have that "oh damn this is some pretty essential Haken" vibes as of yet.

[dparrott]

I've never been a huge Haken fan, just got into them recently, but WOW Fauna is awesome.  I love all of the weird off-time stuff and the creativity with the sounds.  That keyboard(?) sound in the verses of Elephants cracks me up. 

[Glasser]

I agree that the story of Aquarius is fairly silly (it makes The Astonishing look like Shakespeare), but the death growls are barely even used, so I cannot imagine letting them affect my enjoyment of the album as a whole.

Yeah, the growls only show up briefly on two songs. I think they sound silly and out-of-place too, but is that really enough to make an impact on the album as a whole?

The biggest problem I have with Aquarius is the title track. Obviously it's important to the narrative, but god damn is that song so drawn out and boring as hell. I'm glad the band has largely ditched the slow, gloomy 10 minute songs after that and Nocturnal Conspiracy - they don't really align with the band's strengths in my opinion.

Absolutely not. Aquarius is a total masterpiece.

[TheCountOfNYC]

Aquarius is awesome, but it definitely sounds the furthest from what we’ve come to know and love as Haken’s sound. Visions, while still not quite there yet, I think is closer to The Mountain in style than it is to Aquarius. I think Haken themselves recognize how different their first two albums are as well considering how little representation either album has in their recent sets.

[Glasser]

Aquarius is awesome, but it definitely sounds the furthest from what we’ve come to know and love as Haken’s sound. Visions, while still not quite there yet, I think is closer to The Mountain in style than it is to Aquarius. I think Haken themselves recognize how different their first two albums are as well considering how little representation either album has in their recent sets.

Like Images&Words is to DT for me Aquarius is to Haken. The first demos are what hooked me initially and I still love them.

[me7]

Like Images&Words is to DT for me Aquarius is to Haken.

True that.

[KevShmev]

Aquarius is awesome, but it definitely sounds the furthest from what we’ve come to know and love as Haken’s sound. Visions, while still not quite there yet, I think is closer to The Mountain in style than it is to Aquarius. I think Haken themselves recognize how different their first two albums are as well considering how little representation either album has in their recent sets.

Speak for yourself. 

I think this thread alone shows that quite a few of us loved their earlier sound more than the current one. 

[Metro]

I'm definitely in the camp that prefers their work from the Mountain onwards. I almost never go back to the first two.

[jammindude]

Truly I am a huge fan of all 7 (with Vector being “the least of the best”). I honestly cannot think of any progressive rock band with a more consistently top quality output. Except for maybe IQ.

[Glasser]

Truly I am a huge fan of all 7 (with Vector being “the least of the best”). I honestly cannot think of any progressive rock band with a more consistently top quality output. Except for maybe IQ.

Good call with IQ. By the way, I checked the Haken demo "glitch" on their official Bandcamp page and it is there as well. So I personally think its intentional but it is possible its a recording glitch but I doubt it.

[jammindude]

Truly I am a huge fan of all 7 (with Vector being “the least of the best”). I honestly cannot think of any progressive rock band with a more consistently top quality output. Except for maybe IQ.

Good call with IQ. By the way, I checked the Haken demo "glitch" on their official Bandcamp page and it is there as well. So I personally think its intentional but it is possible its a recording glitch but I doubt it.

Well, at least we know that, if it is a mistake, it is straight from the original.

[cramx3]

Truly I am a huge fan of all 7 (with Vector being “the least of the best”). I honestly cannot think of any progressive rock band with a more consistently top quality output. Except for maybe IQ.

Good call with IQ. By the way, I checked the Haken demo "glitch" on their official Bandcamp page and it is there as well. So I personally think its intentional but it is possible its a recording glitch but I doubt it.

At least Haken consistently tours.  I have a hard time digging into bands like IQ who just never tour.  I very much appreciate that Haken tour the US a lot. 

[jammindude]

Truly I am a huge fan of all 7 (with Vector being “the least of the best”). I honestly cannot think of any progressive rock band with a more consistently top quality output. Except for maybe IQ.

Good call with IQ. By the way, I checked the Haken demo "glitch" on their official Bandcamp page and it is there as well. So I personally think its intentional but it is possible its a recording glitch but I doubt it.

At least Haken consistently tours.  I have a hard time digging into bands like IQ who just never tour.  I very much appreciate that Haken tour the US a lot.

AFAIK they were touring Europe every album cycle fairly regularly until COVID happened. They just don’t leave Europe.

[KevShmev]

It still blows that we were a week away from getting the Haken show here in STL where they were gonna play all of Affinity...and then the COVID shutdown happened. 

[cramx3]

Truly I am a huge fan of all 7 (with Vector being “the least of the best”). I honestly cannot think of any progressive rock band with a more consistently top quality output. Except for maybe IQ.

Good call with IQ. By the way, I checked the Haken demo "glitch" on their official Bandcamp page and it is there as well. So I personally think its intentional but it is possible its a recording glitch but I doubt it.

At least Haken consistently tours.  I have a hard time digging into bands like IQ who just never tour.  I very much appreciate that Haken tour the US a lot.

AFAIK they were touring Europe every album cycle fairly regularly until COVID happened. They just don’t leave Europe.

Ah yeah, doesn't really change things for me though.  I did catch them with a bunch of other DTFers a few years ago in NJ though.  I enjoy them, but I just don't have the time to invest in bands that my chances of seeing live are so slim. My mentality the last few years has been to invest my listening time to the bands that will come to my town.  There's just too much music out there and I put a high value on live performances.

[Metro]

It still blows that we were a week away from getting the Haken show here in STL where they were gonna play all of Affinity...and then the COVID shutdown happened. 

That was a Top 5 concert for me. Seeing the live debut of Bound By Gravity was magical.
It does suck that those shows had to be cancelled. Hopefully they get another chance to do a tour like that in the near future.

[NoFred]

It still blows that we were a week away from getting the Haken show here in STL where they were gonna play all of Affinity...and then the COVID shutdown happened. 

That was a Top 5 concert for me. Seeing the live debut of Bound By Gravity was magical.
It does suck that those shows had to be cancelled. Hopefully they get another chance to do a tour like that in the near future.

Not only do I have the unused ticket, about 18-24 months later promoter gave refunds. Stand up act IMO as by that point everything had been written off. This was probably early 2022.

I know they played one or two of the Affinity shows, hope they do them again. I’d travel for Lapse and Bound By Gravity.

[axeman90210]

It still blows that we were a week away from getting the Haken show here in STL where they were gonna play all of Affinity...and then the COVID shutdown happened. 

Yeah, I was super bummed that my STL trip for that show got cancelled. I did end up using the flight credit for that to catch DT and Leprous the same weekend in Austin last year, so that was a silver lining.

[Ben_Jamin]

It still blows that we were a week away from getting the Haken show here in STL where they were gonna play all of Affinity...and then the COVID shutdown happened. 

That was a Top 5 concert for me. Seeing the live debut of Bound By Gravity was magical.
It does suck that those shows had to be cancelled. Hopefully they get another chance to do a tour like that in the near future.

They really need to play Bound By Gravity at least. It's really unfortunate that song only got played a couple times.

If they play it for their headline set I would be ecstatic. But, I doubt they will play it.

[ariich]

I'd guess (without knowing anything about their NA tour set) that Eyes of Ebony would be more likely, which is quite similar.

[Ben_Jamin]

I'd guess (without knowing anything about their NA tour set) that Eyes of Ebony would be more likely, which is quite similar.

I would love that song in the set. I would actually like if they played all of the album songs.

How many new song you think they'll play? Will it just be the usual singles, or would they incorporate more songs?

I think they'll leave out 2-3 songs, and play the rest. Which I also think they'll play all the singles. I do wish they would play the others and leave out one or two of the released singles. That's one thing I don't like about releasing a lot of singles, is that it likely cements them in the setlist for the upcoming tour.

[ariich]

They have already played Nightingale in NA, so I could see them leaving that off. As for the rest of the singles, I'm not sure. I'd expect at least two of them, but they'll definitely want to play a decent number of the non-singles too.

[Mladen]

I'm enjoying the album overall. It's much more wacky and all over the place in comparison to what I'm used to hearing from the guys. There isn't that much metal going on, but I don't mind that. Fauna is more like old Haken, but not as instant and not as melodic. That was a really wild listen.

I especially like Sempiternal beings, Elephants never forget, Taurus and The Alphabet of me.

[devieira73]

Excellent interview with Pete:
https://www.rocking.gr/interviews/haken/41289

[KevShmev]

It still blows that we were a week away from getting the Haken show here in STL where they were gonna play all of Affinity...and then the COVID shutdown happened. 

Yeah, I was super bummed that my STL trip for that show got cancelled. I did end up using the flight credit for that to catch DT and Leprous the same weekend in Austin last year, so that was a silver lining.

Nice! 

[axeman90210]

I'm hoping we get both Elephants and Ebony in NA, but I'm thinking it'll probably only be one of the two.

[me7]

Excellent interview with Pete:
https://www.rocking.gr/interviews/haken/41289

He mentions plans for another Europeal tour leg with more Fauna focus

[Nick]

While I think we'll certainly get more Fauna material in North America, there is one other hopeful and not unrealistic change that would make a world of difference for me.

Drop Prosthetic, already played in NA, move Taurus to the starting spot which will make sense as it'll be a proper Fauna tour at that time, and then put Canary Yellow in the middle of the set somewhere.

[Metro]

Reposting my wish for the NA tour setlist

Still debating on going to that DC show in May. I put together a playlist of a setlist I'd love to see.

Taurus
Invasion
The Alphabet of Me
Beneath the White Rainbow
Darkest Light
Canary Yellow
Sempiternal Beings
Falling Back to Earth
Lovebite
Nil by Mouth
As Death Embraces
Elephants Never Forget
Messiah Complex
Bound By Gravity

107 minutes

[jammindude]

3rd spin today and it’s really starting to sink in.

Man, this album is REALLY good. Not hearing the “weak front half” thing that people have hinted at. This is just a straight top to bottom banger.

Kinda see what people are talking about with the megaphone thing, but I think it works.