Haken - Aquarius

Genre: Progressive Metal
Name: Haken
Album: Aquarius, 2010
Saint-Saens gets an update

VISIONS: COMING SOON!
Check back after October 25th for Haken's new album

Firstly, I would like to offer an apology for the recent (and not so recent) lack of posts. I have, like so many bloggers, it seems, had far too much on. However, the supply of time now exceeds my demand for it, and so time is cheap. Hence this post.

I was flicking through the blog the other day when I realised that I had posted no progressive metal at all. This, I felt, was a travesty. Therefore I resolved to post some as soon as I could, and could think of no better band to choose than Haken.

As with most of my random bands, I was at first drawn in, if you'll pardon the pun, by the artwork. But, unlike so many other albums, Aquarius lives up to the cover. It tells the story of a child born with fins and a tail, and what happens to it. But this is told exceedingly well. The singer is very talented, and the lyrics are also worthy of praise, although they occasionally leave a little to be desired.

However, it is the instrumentation that makes this album the masterpiece it is. Firstly, there a wide-ranging set of instruments is employed: trombones, trumpets, clarinets and flutes all add to the harmonies, and even the strings of a harp can be heard. However, it is not just this variety that makes it so good: the "core" instruments - guitars, bass and, for Haken, the keyboards all are brilliantly written and exceedingly well arranged. For example, if you take the introduction to the second track, Streams, you find the piano with a lovely melodic tune, then added too by some nice cymbal-work, with the other instruments coming in well over the top. However, the instruments are all playing their part - none are just filler.
They also ignore convention, as progressive bands tend to do, and often use odd time-signatures: for example, the chorus of Aquarium switches to 7/8 time for two bars, then back to more conventional times, and then back again. In addition, the songs are allowed to flower, given the full time they need to expand and develop themselves; often over ten minutes in length, they expand even up to seventeen for the final and fantastic conclusion to the album.

However, it is all very well to write music and stick words on the top of it, like an old glacé cherry atop a lovingly prepared cake. However, Hakenhave refused to do that. Their music works with their lyrics, not around it, and it is not made subordinate. I think that it fits the concept perfectly. Keeping to the same section, the piano fits perfectly with the story - it gives a great sense of the flowing water of the stream, with its tinkling melody. And it is not just Haken who had this idea. The more classically inclined amongst you will already be thinking of one Camille Saint-Saens, a Romantic composer who wrote the famous 14-movement suite The Carnival Of The Animals. One of the movements is called Aquarium, and the melody is carried by not one but two separate pianos, playing glissandos and Chopin-esque ostinatos. That, too, gave, and indeed gives, a brilliant sense of water.

If I had to make one criticism, however - and I probably do - it would be that the songs often do not work as well as individual tracks, but only as an album. There are a few that sound just as good on their own, but, for the most part, you have to spend a good seventy-seven minutes listening to the whole thing.

Despite this, however, due to the astounding music, the brilliant lyrics, the range of influences and the general excellence of the album, I would recommend this to all of you. Enjoy!

Summary: Brilliant melodies, written as music not as riffs, combined with a fascinating concept. Well worth a listen.
Lyrical Themes: A concept album about a mermaid, of sorts, born to a human couple
Rating: 9/10
Track listing:
1. The Point Of No Return
2. Streams
3. Aquarium
4. Eternal Rain
5. Drowning In The Flood
6. Sun
7. Celestial Elixir

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P.S. If anyone can find and link me to either of their two demos, which I have not been able to track down, that would be much appreciated. Thanks, and enjoy!