Featured CD - Haken : Visions

[Duncan Glenday]

The comments thus far seem to indicate the obvious, Haken is a band either you click with or not, I wouldn't go so far as to even claim them to be a progressive metal band, too many forays into other genres, and moods. Yes the musicians are very good, but the band has a unique compositional cohesiveness that is unique to them.
And DT comparisons are not necessary, thats kind of like saying Yes sounds like Gentle Giant.

What he said!

[Duncan Glenday]

I should have mentioned in the initial post:

The original review is here
http://www.seaoftranquility.org/revi...ntent&id=11692

There are 2 other good reviews at that address.

[ThomasKDye]

Um... any way us poor saps who missed out on getting that demo CD can hear this stuff? Don't make me beg like a dog at a dinner table...

[selmer]

The new Leprous is my top for the year so far, so I guess I am in the camp that loves it. Definitely more aggressive than their previous releases while maintaining the quirkiness that has characterized this group of bands.

The ironic thing is that I had a bit of an opposite impression - that this was a bit less aggressive than the 2011 album. But as I haven't heard it all, I can't be accurate. I also heard the snippets from the upcoming Anubis Gate and they sound just as good as the self titled record from 2011.

[selmer]

Um... any way us poor saps who missed out on getting that demo CD can hear this stuff? Don't make me beg like a dog at a dinner table...

Some songs should be on youtube, but I haven't checked it out for a while. As for the CD, if you really want it, you should ask either on the bands website forum or their FB page. I don't know if you can buy it on other sites now.

[selmer]

About the new upcoming album - apparently there are two songs longer than 10 minutes - one is 11 and the other 12 minutes in length. So maybe there isn't an epic like 15, 18 or 20 minutes long, but I don't think that it's that important. You can still do a lot of things in 12 minutes.
And the other thing which I find exciting is that some reviews say that there is quiet a bit of a capella and vocal harmony singing. I also hope for a lot of interesting keyboard textures and soundscapes.

[LASERCD]

If you like Aquarius you will like The Mountain.

Should be a blind buy.

[Magic Mountain]

If you like Aquarius you will like The Mountain.

Should be a blind buy.

I actually thought that "Visions" was a huge step up from "Aquarius" (from this thread I guess I'm in the minority). So by saying this, it is a little bit of a disappointment for me.

[LASERCD]

I probably lean towards Visions myself but it was a more linear sounding album. Aquarius had the "what the hell are they going to do next?" factor.

[selmer]

I definitely liked Aquarius more than Visions. Visions had four good songs and four which I thought were...well, maybe not mediocre, but it's difficult to find other word. The album was more straightforward sounding, but the problem for me was that they did not do much interesting with these more familiar sounds. Still, overall I would give Visions thumbs up.
From what I gather, I will indeed like The Mountain.

[Plasmatopia]

One minor quibble I have with Visions is that they did away with what I thought was a killer drum sound on Aquarius. Plus with Visions the overall production got a bit more slick. But it's not like that's necessarily a bad thing. I just preferred the sound of Aquarius and I can see why some might prefer Visions.

[Rand Kelly]

This comes out on Tuesday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=tUz2xt-4FCA