Temic - New Band Featuring Eric Gillette and Diego Tejeida

[KevShmev]

Interesting.

Song wasn't bad at all, but I wasn't sure how much I liked the singer's voice or how well the melodies landed. Will need more listens.

But with Eric and Diego, I am in.  I have made no secret that I thought Diego was the secret sauce in Haken (and their rapid decline, IMO, lately reinforces that belief), and Eric's talents go without saying, so this could be good. 

[425]

But with Eric and Diego, I am in.  I have made no secret that I thought Diego was the secret sauce in Haken (and their rapid decline, IMO, lately reinforces that belief), and Eric's talents go without saying, so this could be good.

That’s interesting. I have to say, I never paid special attention to the keyboards on Haken’s music outside of songs like As Death Embraces. I personally pinpoint the start of the decline in my interest to the switch from “Music by Henshall” to “Music by Haken.”

[Skeever]

Interesting.

Song wasn't bad at all, but I wasn't sure how much I liked the singer's voice or how well the melodies landed. Will need more listens.

But with Eric and Diego, I am in.  I have made no secret that I thought Diego was the secret sauce in Haken (and their rapid decline, IMO, lately reinforces that belief), and Eric's talents go without saying, so this could be good.

Agree to disagree. I think Fauna might be their best now that I've gotten used to it.

And I like Diego. And I'm very much looking forward to this. I actually met a friend of his not too long ago, who gave me some inside baseball. Though not much. It seems like personality wise they just did not gel.

[nobloodyname]

I could listen to that track ten times in a row and still not remember a thing about it. Crushingly mediocre, alas.

[ariich]

But with Eric and Diego, I am in.  I have made no secret that I thought Diego was the secret sauce in Haken (and their rapid decline, IMO, lately reinforces that belief), and Eric's talents go without saying, so this could be good.

That’s interesting. I have to say, I never paid special attention to the keyboards on Haken’s music outside of songs like As Death Embraces. I personally pinpoint the start of the decline in my interest to the switch from “Music by Henshall” to “Music by Haken.”

Yeah while I obviously don't agree, for those who have been less interested in Haken's ongoing output, your attribution makes more sense because the complaints are always about the writing and/or the general style. Kev has stated that view despite it being explained several times that Diego wrote almost none of the music on the albums he likes most. On the first 3 albums the only thing he wrote was As Death Embraces, Hen wrote everything else. Affinity onwards is where they shared things and Diego wrote a bit on that and Vector (and possibly a tiny bit on Virus) along with the rest of them.

[KevShmev]

But with Eric and Diego, I am in.  I have made no secret that I thought Diego was the secret sauce in Haken (and their rapid decline, IMO, lately reinforces that belief), and Eric's talents go without saying, so this could be good.

That’s interesting. I have to say, I never paid special attention to the keyboards on Haken’s music outside of songs like As Death Embraces. I personally pinpoint the start of the decline in my interest to the switch from “Music by Henshall” to “Music by Haken.”

Yeah while I obviously don't agree, for those who have been less interested in Haken's ongoing output, your attribution makes more sense because the complaints are always about the writing and/or the general style. Kev has stated that view despite it being explained several times that Diego wrote almost none of the music on the albums he likes most. On the first 3 albums the only thing he wrote was As Death Embraces, Hen wrote everything else. Affinity onwards is where they shared things and Diego wrote a bit on that and Vector (and possibly a tiny bit on Virus) along with the rest of them.

I never said he wrote a bunch of the songs, so please do not imply that I said that and/or misrepresent what I actually said.

I said I thought he was their secret sauce, which I feel what in large part due to his sounds and his particular style of playing. 

Haken's shift stylistically is the biggest reason for what I view as their descent, which is why it began when Diego was still in the band, IMO.

[Skeever]

I still don't understand "descent". Fauna is legitimately a great album...
Not so sure about the last two as I did not listen to them.

[WilliamMunny]

I still don't understand "descent". Fauna is legitimately a great album...
Not so sure about the last two as I did not listen to them.

I think many consider Vector and Virus to be a bit, well, one-dimensional is probably the nicest way to put it.

I like both albums, but I do not consider them to be the band's best. In fact, I was initially lukewarm to checking out Fauna due to my decreased overall interest in Haken (largely due to the direction that I felt they were heading).

Fauna, at this point, might be my favorite overall album by them, and is a major step in the right direction IMO. This is primarily because it manages to evoke shades of their more seminal work while also feeling fresh and novel.

[Skeever]

Gotcha - my Haken experience has been pretty up and down.

Aquarius - LOVED it, was my "AOTY" the year it came out
Vision - Felt like they sacrificed a lot of their uniqueness to do straight ahead prog metal. Was disappointed.
The Mountain - Never listened.
Affinity - Listened a few times, liked it.
Vector/Virus - Never listened.
Fauna - Love it, might be my AOTY.

[WilliamMunny]

Gotcha - my Haken experience has been pretty up and down.

Aquarius - LOVED it, was my "AOTY" the year it came out
Vision - Felt like they sacrificed a lot of their uniqueness to do straight ahead prog metal. Was disappointed.
The Mountain - Never listened.
Affinity - Listened a few times, liked it.
Vector/Virus - Never listened.
Fauna - Love it, might be my AOTY.

To each his own, but I am borderline shocked you haven't listened to the Mountain

When/if you do, you are in for a treat!

[King Postwhore]

Gotcha - my Haken experience has been pretty up and down.

Aquarius - LOVED it, was my "AOTY" the year it came out
Vision - Felt like they sacrificed a lot of their uniqueness to do straight ahead prog metal. Was disappointed.
The Mountain - Never listened.
Affinity - Listened a few times, liked it.
Vector/Virus - Never listened.
Fauna - Love it, might be my AOTY.

Wow.  The Mountain is by a large % of the fanbase, their best album. 

[Skeever]

When it came out I was feeling a bit "too cool for school" (i.e., not into prog metal). I guess I've got homework to do!

[King Postwhore]

When it came out I was feeling a bit "too cool for school" (i.e., not into prog metal). I guess I've got homework to do!

You may still feel that way.  I'd love to hear what you think now!

[cramx3]

I still don't understand "descent". Fauna is legitimately a great album...
Not so sure about the last two as I did not listen to them.

There is no descent of Haken besides Kev's opinion of them. Fauna is pretty good.  Virus was incredible IMO (I know, I'm not a majority on that opinion).

I've always liked Diego in Haken because of his live playing.  He was a bit more flashy live and showed a bit more life than most of Haken on stage too.  He also shows this in the Devin Townsend live album where he's on keyboards.  It's what made me think he's great for Haken and Haken is good for him.  Pete's fine in the band, but his stage presence is more like the rest of the band and less like Diego.

Regardless, the creative output from Haken has not changed since his departure from my POV.

[KevShmev]

There is no descent of Haken besides Kev's opinion of them. Fauna is pretty good.  Virus was incredible IMO (I know, I'm not a majority on that opinion).

I've always liked Diego in Haken because of his live playing.  He was a bit more flashy live and showed a bit more life than most of Haken on stage too.  He also shows this in the Devin Townsend live album where he's on keyboards.  It's what made me think he's great for Haken and Haken is good for him.  Pete's fine in the band, but his stage presence is more like the rest of the band and less like Diego.

Regardless, the creative output from Haken has not changed since his departure from my POV.

Going from "incredible" to "pretty good" (your opinions) is what most people would call a descent. Nice work in contradicting yourself in the same paragraph.

[425]

I still don't understand "descent". Fauna is legitimately a great album...
Not so sure about the last two as I did not listen to them.

For myself, I would characterize it as a descent in my interest in their music. It's not about me thinking that the songwriting has become bad or something, it's about them going in a stylistic direction that does not interest me as much as their early albums.

I admit I have not listened to all of Fauna yet. It came out during a time when I wasn't listening to any new music, and I haven't gotten back around to it yet. But based on Nightingale and after Vector/Virus, my interest in it is not that high. I'll get around to it, but I'm not in a rush.



Back on the Temic single, part of the relevance of my earlier post is that Diego was not really part of the draw for me here, and this single doesn't really change that. To me, the selling point was Eric, and I just didn't hear him doing much that was distinctive on that track. So the best way to win me on the next single would be to have a nice solo or a really memorable lead from him.

[ariich]

But with Eric and Diego, I am in.  I have made no secret that I thought Diego was the secret sauce in Haken (and their rapid decline, IMO, lately reinforces that belief), and Eric's talents go without saying, so this could be good.

That’s interesting. I have to say, I never paid special attention to the keyboards on Haken’s music outside of songs like As Death Embraces. I personally pinpoint the start of the decline in my interest to the switch from “Music by Henshall” to “Music by Haken.”

Yeah while I obviously don't agree, for those who have been less interested in Haken's ongoing output, your attribution makes more sense because the complaints are always about the writing and/or the general style. Kev has stated that view despite it being explained several times that Diego wrote almost none of the music on the albums he likes most. On the first 3 albums the only thing he wrote was As Death Embraces, Hen wrote everything else. Affinity onwards is where they shared things and Diego wrote a bit on that and Vector (and possibly a tiny bit on Virus) along with the rest of them.

I never said he wrote a bunch of the songs, so please do not imply that I said that and/or misrepresent what I actually said.

I said I thought he was their secret sauce, which I feel what in large part due to his sounds and his particular style of playing. 

Haken's shift stylistically is the biggest reason for what I view as their descent, which is why it began when Diego was still in the band, IMO.

No, but the main things you like less about their more recent albums - based on your previous posts on the matter - are compositional (vocal melodies, rhythmic complexity, etc.) which would be the case regardless of Diego's playing and choice of sounds, and indeed shifted after he become MORE involved in composition and sound design.

[gzarruk]

I really like Fauna and most of Vector, but Virus is such a lifeless, monotone record.

I think the split worked out really well. Pete is amazing with Haken and also an OG member, while Diego made something that seems to be really cool with this new band (though this single isn't too interesting anyway).

[cramx3]

There is no descent of Haken besides Kev's opinion of them. Fauna is pretty good.  Virus was incredible IMO (I know, I'm not a majority on that opinion).

I've always liked Diego in Haken because of his live playing.  He was a bit more flashy live and showed a bit more life than most of Haken on stage too.  He also shows this in the Devin Townsend live album where he's on keyboards.  It's what made me think he's great for Haken and Haken is good for him.  Pete's fine in the band, but his stage presence is more like the rest of the band and less like Diego.

Regardless, the creative output from Haken has not changed since his departure from my POV.

Going from "incredible" to "pretty good" (your opinions) is what most people would call a descent. Nice work in contradicting yourself in the same paragraph.

LOL yeah, that's not really a descent.  Bands have ebb and flows between albums.  I like both very much and their show this year was great.  If it sucked, sure.  Just admit, the descent is your opinion and not a fact of the band that you seem to be presenting.

[KevShmev]

No, but the main things you like less about their more recent albums - based on your previous posts on the matter - are compositional (vocal melodies, rhythmic complexity, etc.) which would be the case regardless of Diego's playing and choice of sounds, and indeed shifted after he become MORE involved in composition and sound design.

The best I can explain how I hear is this: Vector is where the descent began, but as it felt like Diego was still fully engaged, his playing and style was able to still make a good part of the album good to very good.  With Virus, as he was seemingly on the way out, it felt like he was on auto-pilot, thus the overall album suffered greatly.  Not that the band sucked and he was the savior, but with music so rhythmically crazy like their stuff has gotten, a great keyboard player with a strong melodic sense can add an undercurrent of melodic waves to make the overall taste much more balanced.  He did that on Vector, but it felt like it was totally lost on Virus, and only gotten back to a very small degree on Fauna.

LOL yeah, that's not really a descent.  Bands have ebb and flows between albums.  I like both very much and their show this year was great.  If it sucked, sure.  Just admit, the descent is your opinion and not a fact of the band that you seem to be presenting.

I never said my opinion on this matter was a fact.  JFC.

Note to self: don't say anything bad about Haken ever again (and my initial post was more of a compliment to Diego than anything else), or the fans come for you with their pitchforks. 

[ariich]

No, but the main things you like less about their more recent albums - based on your previous posts on the matter - are compositional (vocal melodies, rhythmic complexity, etc.) which would be the case regardless of Diego's playing and choice of sounds, and indeed shifted after he become MORE involved in composition and sound design.

The best I can explain how I hear is this: Vector is where the descent began, but as it felt like Diego was still fully engaged, his playing and style was able to still make a good part of the album good to very good.  With Virus, as he was seemingly on the way out, it felt like he was on auto-pilot, thus the overall album suffered greatly.  Not that the band sucked and he was the savior, but with music so rhythmically crazy like their stuff has gotten, a great keyboard player with a strong melodic sense can add an undercurrent of melodic waves to make the overall taste much more balanced.  He did that on Vector, but it felt like it was totally lost on Virus, and only gotten back to a very small degree on Fauna.

So your opinions on the music and sound itself etc are your opinions and all perfectly valid, I just don't know where you're getting this idea that Diego's contributions were such a big factor to those aspects. On the early albums almost all the melodic sense (as you put it) was driven by Hen (and to some extent Ross in terms of vocal melodies).

What you're describing does not tally at all with what I know of the band's process and who does/did what.

It's really interesting getting to see/hear about how things work in realiit because it's helped me appreciate just how off-base so much stuff fans come up with is. Again in terms of tangible things like who does what, not in terms of what music is better which is purely subjective.

[KevShmev]

So your opinions on the music and sound itself etc are your opinions and all perfectly valid, I just don't know where you're getting this idea that Diego's contributions were such a big factor to those aspects. On the early albums almost all the melodic sense (as you put it) was driven by Hen (and to some extent Ross in terms of vocal melodies).

What you're describing does not tally at all with what I know of the band's process and who does/did what.

It's really interesting getting to see/hear about how things work in realiit because it's helped me appreciate just how off-base so much stuff fans come up with is. Again in terms of tangible things like who does what, not in terms of what music is better which is purely subjective.

I get all that, and it does feel like the band was at their best early on when Henshall was writing all or most of the music, but there is a big difference between writing and playing.  Songwriting will always trump everything in my opinion, but they play in a genre where playing and the personalities of each player is usually vitally important, thus the styles of each player can often times be crucial, even if they were not part of the writing process per se, know what I mean?

[425]

Kev, what role do you think the change in bassists played for you? I haven’t listened closely or recently enough to that aspect to articulate it clearly, but my sense is that the bass plays a different role in their sound now with Connor Green than it did with Thomas MacLean. The Prog Mind, whom I read sometimes and consider a thoughtful reviewer, says some very similar things about the bass to what you say about the keyboards.

I’m still inclined to focus on the songwriting above all, but I’m curious what you think about this. (Rich, of course, if you have thoughts or insights on this aspect I’d find that interesting too!)

[KevShmev]

Kev, what role do you think the change in bassists played for you? I haven’t listened closely or recently enough to that aspect to articulate it clearly, but my sense is that the bass plays a different role in their sound now with Connor Green than it did with Thomas MacLean. The Prog Mind, whom I read sometimes and consider a thoughtful reviewer, says some very similar things about the bass to what you say about the keyboards.

I’m still inclined to focus on the songwriting above all, but I’m curious what you think about this. (Rich, of course, if you have thoughts or insights on this aspect I’d find that interesting too!)

Honestly, when it comes to Haken, I cannot tell the difference between the two bass players.  Maybe I haven't focused on them enough, but they both seem buried most of the time, while doing a great job when you can hear them.

[Skeever]

Back to the project at hand, I'm honestly way more excited to hear Eric outside of Neal's work.

[Architeuthis]

Eric's work with NMB is pretty hard to top.   I just listened to the new single.  It sounds good, but Eric doesn't need a different singer. He himself could handle the lead vocals just fine.  Perhaps he didn't want that role in this band.

I bet it won't top his solo album "The Great Unknown" either. 

[RoeDent]

I wonder if he will sing any lead on this album. It's certainly interesting to hear him go full metal as far as his guitar work goes, given he's Petrucci 2.0.

[gmillerdrake]

Eric's work with NMB is pretty hard to top. 

Every time I go back and listen to TNMB after taking a step away from it for a bit it's always such an awesome experience to hear him play. He's SO good in that setting, with those guys.

I bet it won't top his solo album "The Great Unknown" either.

I liked 'The Great Unknown' but it's not an album that forces me to listen to it on repeat like a lot of them. It's good....but I don't think it's even close to being in the realm of TNMB material.

[Architeuthis]

The Great Unknown is worthy of repeat listens to me. The song "Empty" hits me hard after going through so much tragedy the past few years.  Very deep song and well written.  Some people call it a ballad, it's more of a hard hitting reality check to me. The rest of the album is pretty upbeat and a fun listen with great vocals and guitar by Eric.
I hear what your saying about the NMB though, that is hard to beat.   

[ariich]

The Great Unknown is worthy of repeat listens to me. The song "Empty" hits me hard after going through so much tragedy the past few years.  Very deep song and well written.  Some people call it a ballad, it's more of a hard hitting reality check to me. The rest of the album is pretty upbeat and a fun listen with great vocals and guitar by Eric.
I hear what your saying about the NMB though, that is hard to beat.   

Ballad is one of those words that doesn't have a consistent meaning. It's still technically defined as a song or poem that tells a story/narrative. Common usage in music is now to refer to songs that are more relaxed or upbeat. Some people use it to describe anything quieter than an artist's main style, which could be incredibly dark or bleak or melancholic.

Basically who knows.

[HOF]

For some reason (and this is not really fair at all), the name Temic (or is it TEMIC?) just really bothers me. I don't know, it just sounds made up and silly, but maybe it has a deeper meaning.

Listening to the single, and it sounds more or less like Affinity era Haken, but I think the singer maybe has a better voice than Ross. Song is of a certain style that sounds kind of cool but doesn't move me at all.

[ronnibran]

I'm digging this new Temic song.  First listen I wasn't sure about the vocals but after a few listens I'm liking it.  It was just "new" so had to get used to it.  Considering this is just the first single and I often like "first singles" less than the rest of albums, I have good hopes for the whole album.  I like the style and hoping the rest is more "electronic" (or however the press release described the style as).  Going into this I'm only really familiar with Eric.  For all practical purposes can't really tell he's involved with this song.  But I guess that's fine as long as the music is good.  Maybe on other songs he'll shine more.

[gzarruk]

For some reason (and this is not really fair at all), the name Temic (or is it TEMIC?) just really bothers me. I don't know, it just sounds made up and silly, but maybe it has a deeper meaning.

Listening to the single, and it sounds more or less like Affinity era Haken, but I think the singer maybe has a better voice than Ross. Song is of a certain style that sounds kind of cool but doesn't move me at all.

The name comes from Nahuatl apparently, and it means "one dream" or something like that. I read it when this was first announced, but I can't find where right now. It's definitely something that came from Diego.

[HOF]

For some reason (and this is not really fair at all), the name Temic (or is it TEMIC?) just really bothers me. I don't know, it just sounds made up and silly, but maybe it has a deeper meaning.

Listening to the single, and it sounds more or less like Affinity era Haken, but I think the singer maybe has a better voice than Ross. Song is of a certain style that sounds kind of cool but doesn't move me at all.

The name comes from Nahuatl apparently, and it means "one dream" or something like that. I read it when this was first announced, but I can't find where right now. It's definitely something that came from Diego.

Ah, it does help to know that it is from another language/has a deeper meaning.

[kaos2900]

Don't love it, don't hate it. We'll how the rest of the album turns out. Not sure about the vocals and I hope Eric gets to unleash at some point.