Haken - Affinity

It's good but I liked the previous one way more! Slightly disappointed.

Written by Mark Minoa on 01.05.2016 at 23:28

It's good but I liked the previous one way more! Slightly disappointed.

I usually never advocate this since I don't practice it myself, but give this one more time. If you've gotten used to The Mountain this one will throw you off.

1985 is fucking awesome.

Written by LeKiwi on 02.05.2016 at 01:30

Written by Mark Minoa on 01.05.2016 at 23:28

It's good but I liked the previous one way more! Slightly disappointed.

I usually never advocate this since I don't practice it myself, but give this one more time. If you've gotten used to The Mountain this one will throw you off.

Yeah I'll definitely do that. Hopefully my opinion will change because I really like this band.

I'm giving this a tentative 7, for now. I loved The Mountain, and Restoration, but this doesn't quite capture the magic they had there. I'm sure in a few more listens this will probably move up, because this band is completely original and I love their sound.

Just got through my first listen so we'll see how this sticks and repeats but this is by far the best album this year so far. Absolutely remarkable.

Written by tea[m]ster on 25.04.2016 at 19:19

He is bad. Always has been. The worst part of Haken. I feel no shame saying this - I've been for a long time.

My roommate always tells me he sounds like Kermit the frog, I can kind of hear it. I hear it more as a Jon Anderson-style, I guess that's why I find it endearing.

1985 is one of best tracks they've ever done. Rest of the tracks are still growing on me, but I didn't immediately like The Mountain either.

Written by Mariocalin on 29.04.2016 at 12:01

Masterpiece

Indeed!

Good album. Love the retro nature of some of these prog songs. Some really lovely-sounding tracks, with beautiful melody and conjures up some nice feelings. Overall a good album but I'm not doing cartwheels over it.

I like the type of vocals he offers, it suits the band. The new album is great, just a bit inconsistent.

"The Endless Knot" and "The Architect"!!!!!!!

Well, I hate to say it but this album actually bugged me with how standard it was.

I have a game I tend to play with albums I know are going to be "meh", where I see how far I can predict each moment of the album based on genre alone. I didn't play this game with this album, but I noticed about 3 songs in that the album was playing the game for me. Even on The Architect, which the band and album parades as this central masterpiece (I mean the opening alone says it all) I could tell exactly what was coming just by reading the "Prog Metal 101" handbook. (There were maybe one or two moments in the whole 15 minutes which caught me remotely off guard)

Thankfully the album is saved by the inventiveness of the last three tracks (save the best for last I guess?) though I will admit Ross' vocals were somewhat 'off' on Red Giant which holds the pretty solid songwriting back a bit. The Endless Knot is a genuine Haken classic though, without a doubt.

But yeah, overall this album bugged me a fair bit. There was nothing horridly wrong about it, but that's mostly because it feels like Haken REALLY played it safe and standard here. (The last portion of the album excluded)

Might actually prefer this to The Mountain

This was a thoroughly enjoyable record for me to listen to, though I have to admit it is something of a grower. I think what has stopped me from rating the album even higher is the pretty standard vocals, but then again, there are songs where the vocal delivery is much more versatile than on others. One example I'll give is the stupendous roar towards the end of "the Architect", and maybe another being the higher-pitched musings on "1985" and beautiful closer "Bound by Gravity" respectively. Aside from that, the vocals don't do much for me. But then there's also the intricate musicianship and very mature songwriting to make up for any vocal flaws present. "1985" and "The Architect" alone make this album almost irresistible for me, and "Earthside"'s majestic musical performance means it'll be one of my favourite songs of 2016.

Put simply, it's another record which means Haken are doing things so, so well.

Love these guys

As someone said above, this album seems to miss the magic that was present on The Mountain. They try many things here, sometimes even risking repetitiveness (ex. The Architect) and monotony. This is why I'm glad there are legally alright streaming possibilities, because I'm able to listen to an album before deciding to buy it or not. It's funny how the whole creation is missing one thing: the affinity. I gave it a 7 (good) because fuck it, it's Haken and I like this band.

Vocal is the worst part of them, but stil good enough

Written by Nicko's Nose on 02.05.2016 at 05:17

1985 is fucking awesome.

+1

This album is really incredible! I thought The Mountain was quite good, but it wasn't an album I would listen to regularly (I really like Cockroach King and Falling Back To Earth though), so this was a really nice surprise. I think I have to revisit The Mountain soon.

I didn't start listening to Haken until I heard The Mountain and that album knocked my socks off. This album is still really solid, but I think I still preferred the last release. As others have stated the retro sound on some of these tracks (talking about you '1985') is pulled off flawlessly and somehow makes the album feel fresh and almost nostalgic at the same time. This will probably end up somewhere in my top 10 for the year.

This is their best album.

Written by Mechaniacal on 20.08.2016 at 20:09

This is their best album.

I wouldn't say it's their best, The Mountain is. Affinity is their second best. I was a bit disappointed at first because I expected a quality like on The Mountain which it doesn't quite reach but is very close to.

Also, Red Giant is great and Bound by Gravity reminds me of Anathema because it has the same peaceful and calming atmosphere as later Anathema does.

Edit: Forgot to say that I usually skip The Architect since it's a bit too much by numbers for me and I kind of wish that they had used Einar's clean vocals because his harsh vocals aren't that good (yet) and his cleans would have made a great combination with Ross' vocals. They would have sounded great together.

Between the two, I think this album has better tracks than the entirety of Mountain (Initiate and 1985) but as a whole Mountain is stronger. But I'm super satisfied and I think the band have moved away nicely from their Dream Theater worship and got their own identity

Written by Wiseman's Fear on 25.08.2016 at 00:29

Written by Mechaniacal on 20.08.2016 at 20:09

This is their best album.

I wouldn't say it's their best, The Mountain is. Affinity is their second best. I was a bit disappointed at first because I expected a quality like on The Mountain which it doesn't quite reach but is very close to.

Also, Red Giant is great and Bound by Gravity reminds me of Anathema because it has the same peaceful and calming atmosphere as later Anathema does.

Edit: Forgot to say that I usually skip The Architect since it's a bit too much by numbers for me and I kind of wish that they had used Einar's clean vocals because his harsh vocals aren't that good (yet) and his cleans would have made a great combination with Ross' vocals. They would have sounded great together.

For me it's the other way around. The Mountain has a lot of great moments but Affinity is a far more consistent album, plus and I'm a sucker for 80's retro. The Architect is also a better song than everything on The Mountain, so best if we agree to disagree, heh.

Written by Mechaniacal on 20.08.2016 at 20:09

This is their best album.

Agreed! I have no idea why people keep saying The Mountain is their best album, the first half is great but it definitely loses steam before the end.

I'm enjoying the instrumental version of this album more. I personally can't get into the Vocals on this album.

I love haken to death, but as with all my favorite progressive bands, i do hope they cut back on the "progressiveness" showoff in some of their songs, here its especially apparent from The Architect.

Underrated album!

The album is good, though I still prefer the previous one. However, "The Architect" is such a great song and might their best.

1985 is the highlight of the album for sure that immediately found its way to my 'Favorites' playlist. Also, the breakdown in The Endless Knot is absolutely fucking sick.