AQUARIUS

In the early seventies, a self-respecting progressive band that had earned a reputation and recognition in the mainstream for their early work had to subsequently 'graduate' with a concept album, whether it was sailing across topographical oceans, fighting evil in the form of an armoured armadillo or wandering the streets of New York as a Puerto Rican migrant. However, the English Haken decide to alter the order and start backwards, and at the beginning of 2010 they release as their debut album, the conceptual "Aquarius", the story of a mermaid found by a fisherman, who trades her to the circus to be exhibited as a rare specimen, then, in love, regrets his decision, and finally, before the eminence of a catastrophic flood, she sacrifices her life to save humanity.

"Aquarius" is a robust musical proposal, which feeds on the structures of traditional symphonic rock, adding touches of jazz, a bit of hard rock, and a lot of the vigorousness of progressive metal. The predilection for extended, dramatic passages very much in the vein of Dream Theater, tinged by brief, oxygenated pauses, are present throughout, starting with the somber "The Point of No Return" and the synthesizers of Richard Henshall and Diego Tejeida, the guttural imposition of Ross Jennings, and a suffocating instrumental improvisation in between, and also the intriguingly dark "Streams", the more emotive "Aquarium" and its watery introductory keyboards before dizzyingly derailing in its second half, the cybernetic "Eternal Rain" and the futuristic rasposities of "Drowning in the Flood".

And after so much sonic hyperactivity, the melancholic "Sun" is a peaceful semi-acoustic truce that precedes the portentous and very progressive "Celestial Elixir", a 17-minute emotional roller coaster that goes through moments of both euphoria, theatricality and despondency, always charged with an intense and deep musicality, an excellent song and an unbeatable ending to round off the presentation in society of the English band that already hinted that the best was yet to come.

4 stars

Social review comments

Review related links

• Send comments to Hector Enrique
• Report this review (#3193093)
• Buy HAKEN music online with PA partners
• Show all HAKEN MP3/Stream
• Go to HAKEN page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Aquarius page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for HAKEN related discussions