Haken - Aquarius

(CD 2010, 72:47, Sensory SR3051)

The tracks:
  1- The Point Of No Return(11:27)
  2- Streams(10:14)
  3- Aquarium(10:40)
  4- Eternal Rain(6:43)
  5- Drowning In The Flood(9:28)
  6- Sun(7:19)
  7- Celestial Elixir(16:56)

Haken Website        samples       


Haken was formed back in 2007 and is labelled as a virtuosic progressive rock/metal band from London. The music of Haken is a mix of metal and progressive rock with typical trademarks from bands like IQ, Dream Theater, Genesis and Queen. Their debut album Aquarius is a sc-fi/fantasy concept album filled with lots of musical bombast. The album features long tracks without any breaks and is daring and rather prestigious. The keys dominate, the vocals are mediocre and the compositions are rather weak and predictable. But what bothers me most is the grunting voice on several tracks, which really destroys some of the better songs on this album; you guessed it, I HATE grunting! The weakest track is called Sun, which is an utterly boring piano ballad with too many vocals anyway. Best song is called Eternal Rain, a nice prog rock track with good guitar and keyboard solos.

I think that Haken definitely has musical potential, but these guys have to work very hard to compete with thousands of better bands in this genre. I wish them good luck.

*** Martien Koolen (edited by Robert James Pashman)

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