Haken
Restoration

Haken is back, this time with an EP of reworked and reimagined songs from their demo that was released just short of a decade ago. That could be interesting considering how the band has three new members since that time and they have just welcomed a new bass player into their fray. That calls for some new material and this one has an interesting looking artwork and a content of three songs totalling 34 minutes which is album length in some genres but in the progressive rock or metal genre it is not as the albums and songs there are usually a fair deal longer than most rock genres.

There is a decent variation over the course of this EP, the songs have depth and great melodies, and they change in style and tempo over their duration. It is a progressive album, plain and simple. Not much different from how the genre is imagined amongst the fans, it is a well-produced album with a modern and powerful sound. I think that the songs are very well reworked and different from their originals. There is not that big a difference between this EP and the album that preceded it and I do think that the album trumps this EP in more or less any regard.

I kind of like this EP, the songs are very good and the band show that they are a very competent band. At the same time you just cannot help feeling that they have been a bit lazy because no matter how much you rework an old song, it is still an old song. Still it is way better than releasing a best of or something like that, they can be said to be fair to their fans with this release but I think an even better way would be to release this EP as a bonus with an upcoming album or as tracks on an album. I believe that a clever way to do an album would be to write two or three new fairly long songs and then place these three tracks after those and thus make a great album.

The very long ending song is the best on the album, a nineteen-minute musical adventure that would float any progressive fan’s boat. All the tracks are good but I still have a hard time seeing a really strong reason for this EP or EPs in general these days. But if you really enjoy Haken I think it is a strong addition to your collection but if you are looking to learn more about Haken and their music I would think that their latest album The Mountain would be a better alternative.

HHHHHHH