New Haken Single - The Alphabet of Me

[StevenC]

This slaps

 

[CanserDYI]

I haven't listened to much haken before this, not my personal cup of tea, but this was cool and very different. 👍

Edit: second listen was way better, I dig it a lot haha.

 

[Pietjepieter]

Normally not a big haken fan, but this is a cool one

 

[Shawn]

Really good. Never really checked them out much. Thanks for sharing.

 

[StevenC]

The album, Fauna, is available for preorder too:

Haken

Listen to content by Haken.

haken.lnk.to

 

[jaxadam]

 

[Siggevaio]

Haken are great and it's cool to see Nolly behind the drums

 

[rokket2005]

It's like they took completely disparate elements from someone like X Ambassadors or any other generic modern electro pop band and Karnivool, but despite having the top of the line Vitamix, oil and water don't mix. I didn't think it was bad, but I don't know that it was necessarily good.

 

[TheShreddinHand]

Nightingale was good. This was not. I have really dug everything else they’ve put out though so hopefully this is a one off.

 

[Omzig]

Not doing it for me sorry....but Haken guitarist's Charlie Griffiths's Tiktaalika solo album does.

 

[KailM]

Couldn’t stand it. Lol.

 

[jaxadam]

Couldn’t stand it. Lol.

🤜🤛

 

[TheShreddinHand]

Not doing it for me sorry....but Haken guitarist's Charlie Griffiths's Tiktaalika solo album does.

Charlie’s album is insanely good!

 

[Selkoid]

I actually really like it, definitely a little cheesy but it comes with the territory

 

[mastapimp]

Tried many times with this band but can never get past the watered-down dream theater feel to their music. Even the aesthetics of the video are bland

 

[Crungy]

I'm 60% don't like 40% like on this.

Not being familiar with their music, I'd wager a guess this is a stab at broadening their audience... The intro and first verse has a big Imagine Dragons/Shinedown mixed with Polyphia vibe. I'd like it more if the vocals didn't remind me so much of Imagine Dragons.

I think the chorus is great and the horn solo later on reminds me of the horn parts in The Temptation's Papa Was a Rolling Stone. Which seems out of left field, but I thought that was an interesting arrangement/texture choice.

 

[gunshow86de]

 

[nightflameauto]

I'm 60% don't like 40% like on this.

Not being familiar with their music, I'd wager a guess this is a stab at broadening their audience... The intro and first verse has a big Imagine Dragons/Shinedown mixed with Polyphia vibe. I'd like it more if the vocals didn't remind me so much of Imagine Dragons.

I think the chorus is great and the horn solo later on reminds me of the horn parts in The Temptation's Papa Was a Rolling Stone. Which seems out of left field, but I thought that was an interesting arrangement/texture choice.

That's probably intentional. Those boys do a lot of nods to stuff from the past. Including the segment on the Affinity album where they literally have a breakdown that's straight out of the third season of the original Transformers cartoon background music. They love their nods.

I'm a big fan of these guys, but this one's not hitting me quite right first time through. Granted, most of their music sits better with me in an album context and after a few listens. Virus is literally the only one of theirs that had me freaking out the first time through. Those riffs. Yikes. This ain't bad, but I'm thinking it'll be a slow grower for me.

 

[StevenC]

Taurus has grown on me with more listens. Lovebite seems to be doing the opposite.

Still love Nightingale and Alphabet of Me.

Slightly worried this will not be up to their usual standard, and it's a bit disappointing to have so many singles from a 9 song album. The whole first side and a half is out, so do I just skip that? Nightingale is the longest song so far and 2 of the other songs are guaranteed to be shorter based on how they've split the vinyl tracks. This has the same producer as Aquarius, and while it was way under produced and decadent, this is feeling quite underproduced and sparse.

Haken are by far my favourite active band. I was hoping they'd move away from Nolly on this one, but the loss of Diego as well is maybe too much.

 

[Robslalaina]

Saw them in 2019 I think when they were opening for Devin Townsend. Throughout their performance all I could think was killer musicians, so much unnecessary stuff. This song has less of the typical "let's add this part here and that gratuitous key change there because we can and we'll justify that later somehow" prog wankery that I can't fing stand anymore, but much of it is still quite unnecessary imo.