THE MOUNTAIN

The good news is that Haken continues to expand its already impressive sound palette. A capella vocals, weird vocals, weird keyboards, church music, jazzy interludes, post rock, oriental music, you name it, and, of course, its foundation in Dreamtheater- esque bombastic metal. So the question is - does this kitchen sink work? Mostly, it does, better than most prog eclecticists, athough sometimes it seems that some of the add-ons in a song are there simply for the fun of it, rather than musical and structural necessity.

There is also less reliance on metal, and more on the more atmospheric types of rock such as Radiohead, Porcupine Tree and post rock. It even seems to me that the guys aren't as interested in metal anymore, because, while there's lots of metal here, it sounds a lot like specific songs off the Visions album - the fast riffs and speed picking, keyboard runs. Proportional to percentage in which metal has decreased, the place of the more critically "mature" post rock has increased. And it's a matter of personal taste, but I find some of these repetetive build ups boring. But overall, The Mountain is as good, and perhaps better, than any Haken release so far. Certainly the most diverse.