Puzzles Built by Unguided Toddlers - A Review of Haken's Fauna

Haken is a band that painfully lacks cohesion to fusion its multiple genre-breaking broad ideas. This had become obvious to me when a friend of mine introduced me to this band about a decade in the past, this impression became even more solid when I saw the band opening for Dream Theater a few years ago and now I realize that nothing has changed at all with the seventh full length effort by the British sextet.

This becomes obvious right from the start with ambitious, confusing and nervous opener ''Taurus'' that offers a multitude of creative ideas without fleshing out any one of them and leaving dizzy listeners behind scratching their heads after five irritating minutes.

Fauna includes several decent tunes intertwined with frustrating material that just won't grow even after multiple generous spins. Let's get the negatives out of the way to end this review on some positive notes. ''The Alphabet of Me'' is an airy, alienating and amorphous pop ballad that doesn't have the catchiness, drive and emotions to succeed in its genre. ''Beneath the White Rainbow'' overstays its welcome to never truly lift off, like a musical airplane stranded onto an abandoned airport. The song clocks in at nearly seven minutes for no valuable reason whatsoever. Album epic ''Elephants Never Forget'' shows promise through its eleven minutes and seems to offer ideas for at least five different songs that seem to have been inadequately chopped into pieces and randomly put together as if arranged by a curious toddler.

The instrumental work and vocals also need to be criticized along with the confusing songwriting. Almost every single song includes boring, repetitive and simple djent riffs that sound overused in an attempt to jump a bandwagon that has already left the station. The rhythm section around bass guitar and drums shows promise here and there but sounds overall restrained as if helplessly caught between emotions and technique. Vocalist Ross Jennings certainly has a unique voice, one has to give him that to be honest. However, his airy, high and melodious pop style just doesn't fit at all with djent riffs, elaborate epics and at times random genre changes. Don't get me wrong, I have no problems whatsoever with pop music and there are actually quite a few progressive rock bands who have achieved great success when flirting with such genre elements like Genesis and Yes in the eighties or even Pendragon and Spock's Beard in more recent years. Haken however don't succeed here because the pop vocals are yet another element that doesn't fit in with the band's potpourri of ambitious ideas. Too many cooks certainly spoil the broth here.

So why does this album not get a worse rating? This is mostly due to the fact that Haken keeps showing promise time and again without however fully capitalizing upon it. Said element makes this listening experience even more tiring. ''Sempiternal Beings'' for instance has delicate flow and isn't as much of a chore to sit through as most of the record's other epics. ''Lovebite'' is a focused, joyful and memorable short tune where the band finally shows its promise and delivers one of its very greatest songs. If it weren't for those nerve-firing djent guitar sounds, closing epic ''Eyes of Ebony'' would also qualify as at least very decent atmospheric progressive rock track.

A few other elements also deserve genuine praise. The production is overall solid and manages to keep the numerous genre changes together which is quite an accomplishment in my book.

One also has to point out the record's conceptual lyrics that are also represented by one of the most beautiful cover artworks ever created that I would put upon my wall without any hesitation. If you are willing to give the record's intellectual side some time, you might actually find some food for thought and discussion.

At the end of the day, several dreadful elements and many excellent parts make for an almost schizophrenically average output. Haken's Fauna is even tough to digest for seasoned fans of the band such as a close friend of mine who discovered this record at the same time I did. This release needs acceptance, focus and patience to be even partially appreciated. Many progressive rock fans might feel ecstatic about the band's undeniable creativity shown on this output and greatly exaggerate in their overtly positive reviews. The honest truth however is that the band needs help in its songwriting department because its different ideas just don't seem to fit together.

Final Rating: 55%