Band:	Haken
Album:	Aquarius
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	March 2010

01. The Point Of No Return
02. Streams
03. Aquarium
04. Eternal Rain
05. Drowning In The Flood
06. Sun
07. Celestial Elixir

This album is quite a surprise. New bands often make the mistake of trying too hard to show the world how good they are, and to put so many ideas in the music that all coherence is lost. Haken has a lot of ideas and they know how to play their instruments, but they never show off too much and they managed to make the album sound as a coherent entity.

Aquarius is full of great themes and musical ideas. Every song is (very) different, but somehow the songs fit together. And that may well be the greatest achievement of this album: despite the fact that the songs differ quite a lot, they fit well together, giving the album a recognizable sound.

What the songs have in common is that energetic parts, in which typical prog runs are drawn out, are alternated with more modest and meandering parts. Typical is not a disqualification here. Haken is clearly recognizable as a prog band, but they prog in an original way. They also like to merge (very) different styles in one song, they remind me of The Flower Kings when they do that.

All elements of Haken's musicianship are covered in the epic last song "Celestial Elixir." This song starts with a Dream Theater-like ouverture ("Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence") with jazzy elements. The song then moves on to a subdued, atmospheric singing part with a nice role for the piano/keys. This part is followed by some kind of carnavalesque big-band (Dixieland) part which sounded to me like a crossing of Dream Theater's "Dance of Eternity" and the Flower Kings. The following proggy guitar part reminds me vaguely of Dream Theater again. After a keyboard part, the singing part comes back again, this time leading to an apotheosis.

From the above, you might get the impression that Haken is a Dream Theater clone, but you couldn't be more wrong. Sure, they certainly pick Dream Theater elements, and especially the guitar playing reminds me of Dream Theater's John Petrucci, but Haken also reminds me of The Flower Kings (the playful and humorous prog approach) and Porcupine Tree (the subdued song parts). They do this in an organic and unique way. And very importantly, they do this with great musical skill.

To complete this review a few critical points. First, please stop the grunting ("Point Of No Return") or do it much better. Second, Ross Jennings is a great singer in the slower, more subdued parts, but sometimes seems to lack some strength in the louder, more intense parts. As a last point, the drumming sounds a bit tinny now and then. I am not sure whether this is due to the mixing of the album, or to the fact that the drummer simply lacks quality. Don't get me wrong, the drumming sounds good, but not as great as the rest of the band.

Apart from this, Haken is an outstanding, (relatively) new sprout to the prog tree who delivered with Aquarius an excellent album.