Since the very first time I've listened to Haken, which was near 2014, when the Dream Theater members were recommending the best albums they've heard and were released in 2013 and there was Haken with the album The Mountain in Jordan Rudess's list. The original link was lost and I've only found a reinterpretation by the Brazilian blog Whiplash. In this middle time, until I got to know about Affinity's release and the ad that the band made on their Facebook, the expectation grew up and, in the release day, I didn't get disappointed at all.
The album's cover resembles games or computer programs boxes from the 80s and the magic starts when the first song's name plays with how the album will start, using the ending ".exe", which is a reference to computer executables. Just right there the album won me, because since I was a little kid I like using and scrambling with computers.
This usage of 80s reference and the computational part is a subject alluded in the whole album. If we look at how mankind and computation evolved from then on, it's fearsome! The beginning of computers, videogames, advanced computing and how even artificial intelligence is bulking and, in a certain way, scaring us. It isn't a new subject if we think of movies like The Matrix that, if you haven't watched yet for any reason, I also recommend.
The album's instrumentals part is what pleases me the most. The band is very technical and accurate in what they want to do. There are moments that it seems easy to play but, when you pick up an instrument to try, you notice you've been tricked. The band makes it look easy because they are connected. The sound, at the same time it frequently refers to the 80s, brings modernity to its side. They also drink from the waters of of their "godfathers", Dream Theater, using odd time signatures, with the difference of having songs not as long as theirs.
The songs I like the most, following the order put in the album, are:
The album's cover resembles games or computer programs boxes from the 80s and the magic starts when the first song's name plays with how the album will start, using the ending ".exe", which is a reference to computer executables. Just right there the album won me, because since I was a little kid I like using and scrambling with computers.
This usage of 80s reference and the computational part is a subject alluded in the whole album. If we look at how mankind and computation evolved from then on, it's fearsome! The beginning of computers, videogames, advanced computing and how even artificial intelligence is bulking and, in a certain way, scaring us. It isn't a new subject if we think of movies like The Matrix that, if you haven't watched yet for any reason, I also recommend.
The album's instrumentals part is what pleases me the most. The band is very technical and accurate in what they want to do. There are moments that it seems easy to play but, when you pick up an instrument to try, you notice you've been tricked. The band makes it look easy because they are connected. The sound, at the same time it frequently refers to the 80s, brings modernity to its side. They also drink from the waters of of their "godfathers", Dream Theater, using odd time signatures, with the difference of having songs not as long as theirs.
The songs I like the most, following the order put in the album, are:
- Initiate
- 1985
- The Architect
- Earthrise
- The Endless Knot
- Bound By Gravity
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