Haken – Aquarius (2010)

Having formed back in 2007, Haken sounds like a band that’s been around for decades. Attempting to dethrone Dream Theater, Haken is here to blow us away with their impressive first release. The band comes close with a very good progressive Metal/Rock Jazzy album with “Aquarius”, but the only problem is that they sound too much like DT and IQ.

“Aquarius” is a monumental 72 minute long release that is very impressive and every Prog fan should check this one out. In a few years Haken has done what it has taken 10-15 years to other bands. The band has polished their sound greatly and they can compose monumental 16 minute songs that will keep you engaged the whole time, with not a single dull moment.

The band draws influences from all the greats in the Prog scene, and they add their own ‘jazzyness’ to the music (courtesy of two members of To-Mera). There are definitely a wide variety of themes when it comes to the music, since there is the Sci-Fi / futuristic feeling to it, but it also has a carnival feeling to it, making it very diverse and interesting.

The guitar work is very good, as typical for these kinds of releases. Both the distorted and clean guitars are very composed and work nicely with the music. The band uses different styles of vocals, most predominantly clean vocals a la James LaBrie, but the growls in one of the song are interestingly placed. The drumming is quite good, keeping this release in a perfect pace.

The best musical instrument in this album is by far the majestic keyboards. This element makes the music very good, and also very similar to DT (good or bad? your call). The melodies created by the keyboards are what gives this release the traditional Prog Metal/Rock feeling and elevates the quality of this album greatly.

For a band’s first release, it can’t get any better than “Aquarius”. We are looking forward to hearing more from this brilliant band and to see them one day play with DT, in order to fully verify how similar they are live. If you are a fan of DT and Progressive Metal/Rock in general, we greatly recommend this release to you.

Release: March 30th, 2010

Country: UK