ALBUM REVIEW: Fauna – Haken
As pretentious as it sounds, HAKEN know what it is to make ‘progressive’ music. The debate around the genre’s true DNA is endless, and ultimately rather pointless, but in the truest sense of the word, HAKEN have cracked the progressive formula, wrapped it round their virtuosic pinky fingers and command its servitude to their every will. In simpler terms, each of the Brits’ releases directs its own identity, its own temperament, its own language; they each progress the novel of HAKEN as the ink dries on its new chapter. The result of which is a discography of almost unrivalled consistency both in their chameleon-coloured vision and their dexterity to execute it; a portfolio that, while connected by traits that are undeniably HAKEN and HAKEN alone, is never satisfied to walk the beaten trail. That brings us to Fauna, and the narrative it chooses to forge. Is it worth reading? Or have HAKEN run dry of ink and written themselves into a corner?
This is, of course, a silly question. Of course they haven’t. Eighteen years deep into their career – a stupendous amount of time for a band that still feels in mint condition – and HAKEN are yet to turn over a stone that isn’t hiding a few gems. The striking cover art, courtesy of the masterful Dan Goldsworthy, says it all. It’s intelligent, refined and porous enough to hold endless enjoyment and detail beyond the wring. HAKEN have always indulged in copious genre blends and all things off-kilter, but Fauna feels more of a compilation of the band’s etched history, rather than a single step into the unknown as its predecessors have done. Imagine a HAKEN greatest hits LP without being quite so self-referential and without the cheesy 2000s album cover.
Taurus, the album’s opener, comes straight from the alt-metal cuts of Virus and Vector with untethered rage and the familiar edge of something unsettling; Eyes Of Ebony delivers the grace of The Mountain’s softest moments; whilst Beneath The White Rainbow has clearly borrowed some of the avant-garde ‘substances’ the band’s debut Aquarius had taken in its primal years. Yet, none of this ever feels reductive, nor a blatant attempt to recapture ‘the best bits’, but simply a culmination of the shape-shifting pantomime HAKEN have revelled in for almost two decades. It’s fitting, really, that the album should be built with an animal in mind for each song as the project is just as hard to pigeonhole as the animal kingdom itself.
This musical menagerie also finds great virtue in its own beauty. Perhaps it’s because the previous two albums writhed in the metallic mud more so than Fauna, but nevertheless, there’s no doubt this is one of the band’s most magical pieces of work. Nightingale, Lovebite, Sempiternal Beings, Island In The Clouds, Eyes Of Ebony, one way or another all possess moments destined for raising hairs and shivering spines. Fans can partly thank the return of key master Pete Jones for this; his prestige over the keys has been sorely missed and thankfully not something that is squandered in the mire of production. This isn’t to say Fauna is entirely vegetarian – Taurus can attest to that on its own – but in all the advancements and musical exoticism unravelled between its pages, Fauna is above all else a stunning canvas to behold.
Alike some other elements of their catalogue, HAKEN’s latest is not likely to strike love at first sight. The Alphabet Of Me is almost repellent at times with its incessant IMAGINE DRAGONS ‘woah ohh’ing and the aforementioned bizarre factor of Beneath The White Rainbow gets a little squeamish at times – we implore Ross to avoid singing into a megaphone in the future.
Fauna is quietly, but confidently, a beast of an album. Both a credit to the Brits’ 18 years of unfaltering commitment to the demand to invent and a slip further down the rabbit hole of ‘what could be’, it’s over an hour of ear-to-ear grins yet again. If they’re to follow a new trend of album twins (as Vector and Virus were) then perhaps we’re set for the release of Flora in 2025? Plant-core? Log-rock? BRAKEN? Anyone?
Rating: 9/10
Fauna is set for release on March 3rd via InsideOut Music.
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