VECTOR

Haken surprised me here. Thought they would go in more for a post-rock direction. But this is their densest (and that's the ultra-bombastic Haken we're talking about!), djentiest and most electronic album. I realize I'm in the minority, but here's my beef with his record. Whilst not forgetting about melodic hooks, and the challenge of discovering all the details they load every song with, it's not diverse enough for its brevity (just 5 "keepers" taking up 38 minutes). For example, the two epics taking up the bulk of the time are too similar in vibe and structure, where they'll start with riff bombardement followed by an electronic break and then back to the pounding. And I have trouble remembering which riffs go for which song. Compare this to the diversity found on The Mountain and the better melodic clarity on Visions - their best and coincidentially highest-rated works.