VISIONS

Great music, outstanding production - mediocre lyrics. Haken's 2nd album is better than the debut, which was too slow (tempo-wise) to excite. This effort rocks harder, moves faster, and is more persuasive.

However, the concept does not work. Every great album needs a great lyrical base, and "Visions" does not have this. The story about the nightmare haunting the little boy is not very interesting. The band members were so focused on the musical side, they forgot about the concept.

So although this is a lot of fun, and the solos are great - even the mermaid story on "Aquarius" was more convincing. So we're left with a great prog-metal album, perfect hooks and outstanding studio work, but not enough meat to make this a true progressive masterpiece.

If the Haken guys want to top that, they should put more effort on the concept, storyline and better lyrics. They're all brilliant musicians, they need a poet to work for them (or with them).