THE MOUNTAIN

This is a general public review. I, as a third unattached, NO COMPROMISES (no debts) observer, write it for ALL readers (not only for this band's followers, to be exact!). So forwarned, skip your "I HATE YOU!" mail, and follow your own instincts! (check my likings if you don't agree, I'm not for you!, easy does it)..... That spoken, I follow my review. HAKEN - The Mountain, is full of ballads or slow sections, that are supposed to be enhanced by contrast, with the fast-paced instrumental synchronizations, common to the genre. IMO, first thing is the song writing,.. performance comes next. So it could be that you are the fastest keyboardist or bass player, or even think you are Bob Dylan., at the end of the day, if the "canvas" is poor no matter how well or fast you play the results will be like that, poor. Therefore, even these guys "inspired" performances, the music itself does not go beyond its musical-composition, obvious limitations. They in fact offer very little in return, really, not a bit daring at all and completely PREDICTABLE, even at first listening you know what comes next and next and next,... boring!! Like a "reloaded" SUPERTRAMP, with an excessive un-pretentiousness that falls into childish, to put it lightly, tunes and lyrics. A band that relies too much on its vocalist's talents (1.5 pitch below Lee's), who by the way never shuts-up (idem), and becomes the boring lead man of the music behind. With no real musical proposal, they just play along the lines of the genre and follow the tedious "cheap-poetry" lyrics, all the way through. ...The saying goes- "that nobody can come up with the "corniest" ballads, BUT the "Heavies", sometimes even more than the Pop people...(except of course KC & The ZEP, but ironically, they are not in this Heavy-category). Well it's proven here with Haken!--- And of course, what made Dylan-Dylan, was not just his talents for the written word, it had to do mostly with his daring also, music composition, which here in "the Mountain", there is few and in drops. *1 PA "The "eagerness" in performance does not compensate for the TOOTHLESS, by the book. un-creative, musical composition results", star. Climb the ladder!!