Haken v. new single Nightingale (April 26)

[ariich]

I think Invasion might be moving even higher to be honest, maybe number 3. I just love everything about it.

[cramx3]

hmmm ill give it a try but like others, it's not easy and could change

1. 1985
2. Messiah Complex
3. Falling Back to Earth
4. Deathless
5. Visions
6. In Memoriam
7. Bound By Gravity
8. Veil
9. Pareidolia
10. The Strain

[Nick]

Celestial Elixir
Deathless
Falling Back to Earth
Crystallized
The Endless Knot
The Good Doctor
Carousel

Working through chronologically those were the locks I immediately thought of.

The final 3 becomes really tough, but I'll go with:
The Point of No Return
In Memoriam
The Architect

And I'll round out the top 15 with some honorable mentions:
Drowning in the Flood
Nocturnal Conspiracy
Pareidolia
1985
The Strain

[krands85]

Roughly something like this:

1. Visions
2. Celestial Elixir
3. Crystallised
4. Pareidolia
5. 1985
6. The Architect
7. Insomnia
8. Falling Back to Earth
9. A Cell Divides
10. Puzzle Box

Aquarium, Atlas Stone, Darkest Light, Initiate, The Endless Knot are all floating around just outside the top 10. Nothing from Virus, though there's still time for songs to grow on me - at the moment Invasion, The Strain and possibly Prosthetic are the ones that could possibly sneak in there.

[ariich]

Really happy to see love for In Memoriam!

[devieira73]

Should we consider Haken among prog(-metal)'s big league now? Have they reached that status already with just three very-highly-regarded albums out? I certainly think so. In prog terms, I think Dream Theater defined the 90s and Porcupine Tree defined the 00s, and halfway through this decade, I think we can add Haken as the defining prog band of the 10s.

Totally agree with that, but I would address this to prog metal, which, by definition, is only a niche ( although I think DT breaked a bit this frontier).
Edit: nevermind, I replied a very very old post! Hahaha
But, I think it's a very valid opinion, even more  nowadays.

[cramx3]

Really happy to see love for In Memoriam!

Such a beast of a song, my favorite of their shorter songs.

Should we consider Haken among prog(-metal)'s big league now? Have they reached that status already with just three very-highly-regarded albums out? I certainly think so. In prog terms, I think Dream Theater defined the 90s and Porcupine Tree defined the 00s, and halfway through this decade, I think we can add Haken as the defining prog band of the 10s.

Totally agree with that, but I would address this to prog metal, which, by definition, is only a niche ( although I think DT breaked a bit this frontier).

I had kind of considered Haken to be at this level already with the release of Vector and being able to tour the US as a headliner multiple times.  But I do agree, it's a niche genre so even being at the highest or near the highest levels in this genre kind of doesn't mean much in the broader music world.  Hopefully they continue to rise, there's plenty of room to grow still.

[Evermind]

I mean that post was from 2014

[cramx3]

  didn't even catch that, but I would have disagreed back then

[ariich]

I think Haken's status goes beyond just prog metal (where they're among the biggest right now) to being a pretty big band in the wider/overall prog industry/community too.

[RoeDent]

Agreed. Every album release is An Event, highly anticipated by a significant amount of the prog fanbase.

[cramx3]

I think Haken's status goes beyond just prog metal (where they're among the biggest right now) to being a pretty big band in the wider/overall prog industry/community too.

Yea, I'd say they are more known now in the prog world than the metal world if you were to split it like that.

[nattmorker]

This would be really tough, according to itunes, my top 10 most listened Haken songs are:

1. In Memoriam
2. The Path
3. The Architect
4. Celestial Elixir
5. 1985
6. Puzzle Box
7. The Good Doctor
8. Initiate
9. Earthrise
10. Falling Back To Earth

[Ben_Jamin]

I guess this gives me a good reason to listen to Hakens albums, Mainly Visions and Aquarius to get those songs.

[Ben_Jamin]

This is Without Aquarius, as I need to listen to it way more. Found a copy of it on Amazon.

1. Earthrise
2. Deathless
3. Bound By Gravity 
4. Shapeshifter
5. Falling Back to Earth
6. Visions
7. Host
8. A Cell Divides
9. Insomnia
10. Somebody


Album: The Mountain

[RoeDent]

Are we doing top 10s? If so...

1. Visions
2. Atlas Stone
3. The Good Doctor
4. Celestial Elixir
5. Puzzle Box
6. Carousel
7. Nil By Mouth
8. Aquarium
9. Somebody
10. 1985

[Kram]

A little late to the party as I just picked this up yesterday.  After 2 spins, it's too early to tell where it will fall in their catalog.  But I can tell you I already like it better than Vector (which I do like by the way).  Overall I think it sounds less dense than Vector.  I feel like the instruments have a little more room to breath, comparatively, but it still has a pretty heavy sound overall.

I haven't read through all the pages here, so forgive me if this has been mentioned - but I couldn't help but notice the main riff in Messiah Complex 1. Ivory Tower is, shall we say, "influenced" by LTE's Paradigm Shift LOL

[TheCountOfNYC]

01: Celestial Elixir
02: Crystallised
03: Visions
04: Veil
05: Pareidolia
06: Messiah Complex
07: The Architect
08: Invasion
09: Nil By Mouth
10: Falling Back to Earth

[FlyingBIZKIT]

1. Red Giant
2. Crystallised
3. Bound By Gravity
4. Visions
5. 1985
6. Celestial Elixir
7. Falling Back to Earth
8. Puzzle Box
9. Earthrise
10. Earthlings

And my album rankings:

1. Affinity
2. Restoration EP
3. Visions
4. The Mountain
5. Vector
6. Aquarius
7. Virus

[jammindude]

Well....it's not news. But Diego just posted a new synth wave jam.

https://youtu.be/PEZ6EbdWl3Y

[hefdaddy42]

Just listened to this for the first time yesterday.

My initial prognosis is that it is quite good.

[Elite]

1. Affinity
2. Restoration EP
3. Visions
4. The Mountain
5. Vector
6. Aquarius
7. Virus

You silly person.

[Buddyhunter1]

I know Affinity would be my #1 but after that I honestly have no clue how to rank them. Affinity's really their only album I like the majority of.

[Mladen]

1. Aquarius
2. The Mountain
3. Vector
4. Visions
5. Affinity
6. Virus

[FlyingBIZKIT]

1. Affinity
2. Restoration EP
3. Visions
4. The Mountain
5. Vector
6. Aquarius
7. Virus

You silly person.

[Revenge319]

Album rankings:

1. The Mountain
2. Affinity
3. Vector
4. Virus
5. Aquarius
6. Visions
7. Restoration

Virus and Aquarius are basically tied. Restoration may go higher once I've given it more listens.

[ThatOneGuy2112]

Oh boy here we go

1. The Mountain
2. Affinity
3. Restoration
4. Visions
5. Vector
6. Aquarius

Only listened to Virus once so far so it's hard to say where it'll land, but I'm leaning in between 3 and 4 right now.

[Progmetty]

I bought all digital copies of the albums that came after The Mountain, since I don't have a CD player anymore and it sure looks like it's taking ages for people to get Haken CDs anyway.
Here's the thing; for some reason amazon doesn't provide album booklets with the digital downloads anymore and I really like reading those.
So getting to the awkward request, I'd really appreciate it if anyone with a scanner and time would make me some png or jpg scans of the booklets, I know it's a shit ton of time, but I don't have to get them all at once or anything and there's no rush.
I've moved on from The Mountain a bit, listening to Restoration the last couple of days. I love Crystallised and I rarely like songs that cross the 12 minute mark or so.

[IDontNotDoThings]

1. Affinity
2. Vector
3. Aquarius
4. The Mountain
5. Visions
6. Restoration - EP
7. Virus

[Buddyhunter1]

It doesn't really feel fair to rank Restoration among the studio albums but if I had to it'd definitely be at the bottom.

[The Letter M]

Guess I'll give it a go, too...

Visions
Affinity
The Mountain
Aquarius
Vector/Virus
Restoration

The V's are pretty much tied for me right now, but I can imagine Virus climbing up to equal Aquarius for me.

-Marc.

[jammindude]

I could never do a top 10 songs. More so than any other band I think it would just kill me. But I can rank the albums.

The Mountain
Visions
Affinity
Vector/Virus
Aquarius

And to be honest, it's hard to put anything at the bottom. Last year I would've put Vector at the bottom. But now that I've heard the complete piece of work, I can't help but see them as a single two CD album. And they're both better for it.

I am officially declaring this the best opening six albums of any prog rock band I can think of.  There is not a single note from any of these six albums that I don't absolutely adore.

[The Letter M]

I could never do a top 10 songs. More so than any other band I think it would just kill me. But I can rank the albums.

The Mountain
Visions
Affinity
Vector/Virus
Aquarius

And to be honest, it's hard to put anything at the bottom. Last year I would've put Vector at the bottom. But now that I've heard the complete piece of work, I can't help but see them as a single two CD album. And they're both better for it.

I am officially declaring this the best opening six albums of any prog rock band I can think of. There is not a single note from any of these six albums that I don't absolutely adore.

Bold statement (literally and figuratively), but I can think of a couple others I would put into that category:
-Yes, for one, but that depends on how you feel about their first two and TFTO, since TYA-Fragile-CTTE are fairly universally loved
-Spock's Beard, but I 'm a huge Neal Morse fan and those first six SB albums are pretty perfect in my eyes (yes, even Day For Night)
-I'd also say Riverside has had a great outing since their debut, and their first six are pretty amazing albums
-Kansas would come close, but I've not been huge on Monolith, though the last time I heard it, I liked it more than I remembered
-The same for The Flower Kings, who have an amazing first-five run, but their sixth is a bit divisive

Of any of those, though, I'd definitely put Haken's first six near the top (maybe tied with SB and Yes), if because there's a high quality and consistency for their output that I've thoroughly enjoyed over the last decade or so.

-Marc.

[Pettor]

Hehe I had to check progarchives to check what progmetal (progrock is too big to even begin investigating) band that actually has the best 6 opening albums. Obviously progarchives is 100% objective and the scores there can be treated as fact. Quite quickly the only contenders was Riverside and POS. Maybe missed some bands but don't think so. My feeling was that Riverside (as being maybe the most consistently good band ever) would be the hardest opponent.

Average score of first 6 albums (progarchives obviously rate from 0-5):

Riverside: 4,10
Haken: 4,00
POS: 3,96 (Scarsick took down the score quite dramatically)
Dream Theater: 3,95 (Excluding WDADU obviously  (and FII and TOT dragging down the score dramatically ))

Anyway good run so far! 

[Zydar]

I've never heard Riverside. Which album should I check out?